


Fae and Flirtation

by cakeengland, Night_StormCaptain



Category: Eldarya
Genre: Agender Character, Anxiety, Attempted Suicide, Depression, F/M, Gardienne is actually a pair of twins, also we threw her canon personality out the window, dialogue is basically ripped from our own conversations, more Pride and Prejudice references than we should have allowed ourselves, references to disability
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-06-19 20:20:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15517818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cakeengland/pseuds/cakeengland, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Night_StormCaptain/pseuds/Night_StormCaptain
Summary: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a pair of twin sisters in possession of a good imagination must be in want of an adventure.Such was the case for Chloe and Elizabeth Rose, who in their nineteen years had had access to a great many books and very little excitement.  The lovely late summer morning on which this story begins found the sisters walking through the forest near their home to temporarily escape from thoughts of college, responsibilities, and adult life in general.  What they were searching for, neither of them quite knew, but both agreed that they preferred each other’s company and the forest over their bustling, mundane daily life.~*~OR~*~Two twin sisters find a fae circle.  Magic happens.





	1. Chapter 1

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a pair of twin sisters in possession of a good imagination must be in want of an adventure.

Such was the case for Chloe and Elizabeth Rose, who in their nineteen years had had access to a great many books and very little excitement.  The lovely late summer morning on which this story begins found the sisters walking through the forest near their home to temporarily escape from thoughts of college, responsibilities, and adult life in general.  What they were searching for, neither of them quite knew, but both agreed that they preferred each other’s company and the forest over their bustling, mundane daily life.

“This is nice,” the younger, Chloe, declared.  “Maybe we should’ve brought books, though.”

“Who needs books in a place like this?” Elizabeth countered.  “It’s like there are a thousand stories out here just waiting to be written.”

“If we could ever finish one,” Chloe laughed, sitting down on a tangle of roots.

Elizabeth stepped up on top of the tangle, leaning against the trunk of the tree.  “Don’t call me out like this.”

“Hey, I’m calling myself out just as much as you.”  She idly massaged her sore ankles.

Elizabeth fidgeted, stepping back and forth from root to root.  “Touche.”

They chattered back and forth for a few more minutes before Chloe stood again.  “C’mon, let’s go in deeper. It’s not often we get a break like this.”

“If you’re sure your legs will hold up.”  Elizabeth took her duties as her slightly younger sister’s overprotector very seriously.

“Elizabeeeeth, I’m fine,” Chloe promised, rolling her eyes.  “We’re going on a walk through the forest, not running a marathon.”

“If you’re sure.”  Elizabeth hopped down from the roots.  “Ooh, we should see if we can find any new paths or cool places!”

“You take the lead, then.” The younger gestured for her sister to take the lead.

Elizabeth nodded, taking note of landmarks and which direction the sun was before turning off of the path, delving into a bit of forest that didn’t seem too overgrown but was still a bit wilder than their usual turf.  Chloe followed, albeit at a somewhat slower pace.

“I wonder if we’ll discover anything cool, like that old bridge we found last month.”  Elizabeth’s hazel eyes sparkled with excitement.

“I read about someone finding a house in the woods on tumblr,” Chloe mused, a thoughtful glint in her blue eyes. “There were people living inside. The husband showed them how to make… honeycomb, I think it was?”

“Make honeycomb?”  Elizabeth paused for a moment, confused.  “I thought it was bees that made honeycomb?”

“I mean, yeah, there were bees in the story, but… oh, nevermind.”  Chloe shook her head.

“I think I’d be a little wary of people randomly living in the woods,” Elizabeth admitted.  “I mean, yeah, it’s a cool thought, but let’s be realistic, even if they were nice, I’m not sure I’d want to be the one to go up and talk to them.  ...no, that’s a lie, I would totally go talk to them.”

Chloe snorted.  “I wish I could, but anxiety.”

Elizabeth made an agreeing sort of noise, and they continued in silence for a little while, navigating through weedy undergrowth and between gnarled old trees.  After a few minutes, they began to hear running water and, picking up their pace, they found a tiny, swiftly-flowing stream in a little gully. “This is cute!” Elizabeth exclaimed.  The water looked clear, so she slipped off her sandals, picked them up, and splashed through it to the other side.

“I like water,” Chloe agreed.  Taking off her shoes and socks would have been too much of a hassle, so she just followed her sister.

Elizabeth was about to suggest walking upstream next to it for a while when something else caught her eye through the trees.  Pointing, she asked, “Does the grass in that clearing look…  _ greener  _ to you?”

Chloe glanced over to where she was indicating.  “I think so. Wow, I can’t believe I just agreed that grass was greener somewhere.”  She started singing to the tune of ‘Under the Sea.’ “The grass is always greener in somebody else’s… hmm.  Would it be forest or clearing?”

“Woods, maybe?” Elizabeth suggested.  “That fits with the syllables better, at least.  Wanna go check it out?”

“Well, why not?” Chloe shrugged.  “These parts aren’t dangerous.”

Elizabeth grinned, changing course to check out the mysteriously verdant forest… clearing… woods… whatever they were going to call it.  Chloe continued to follow her, more curious than she let on, and it didn’t take them long to reach the area. When they did, they found something far more intriguing than unusually green grass.

“Check out those mushrooms!”  Elizabeth’s voice was hushed in amazement.

“Faeries,” Chloe said immediately.  “Mushrooms don’t grow in circles like that, Elizabeth.”

“You have no idea how much I want to believe that.”  Elizabeth underwent a brief internal struggle; on the one hand, she loved all things fantasy, but on the other, she tried to stay realistic when it came to actual real life.  The perfect circle of mushrooms, however, seemed ready to shatter her shaky grip on the idea of realism. She stood there for a moment, simply staring at it.

“What, that mushrooms don’t grow in circles?”  Chloe grinned at her twin from behind, walking past her.  “Let’s find out.” She put one foot inside the circle; immediately, lightning bugs swarmed up around her.  She could’ve sworn there were none there previously. “What did I tell you?”

Heart pounding, Elizabeth followed Chloe’s lead, stepping into the circle.  “I can’t believe this isn’t… wait, no… I believe I can’t… bleh.” She gave up; failing at words was a specialty both twins shared, and each was able to understand the other’s tongue-flops anyway.

Laughing, Chloe put her other foot inside the circle as well.  The sisters were immediately engulfed in a brilliant white light.  They squeezed their eyes shut, and when they opened them, the forest had vanished.  In its place was a round, lavishly decorated room with a somewhat strange structure.  Beneath a ceiling with a colorful mosaic, it had a sort of wide catwalk around the edge, with bridges leading to an island-like structure in the center from two directions and stairs leading to a higher level of the island from the other two directions.  Elaborately carved railings in pink, gold, and blue blocked the edges of the lower pit area, and an elegant pedestal with similar decoration stood on the island; it was to the top of that pedestal that the staircases led. However, all of this paled in comparison to the enormous, softly glowing blue crystal that the pedestal supported.

While Elizabeth stood frozen, simply taking in their new surroundings, Chloe was immediately entranced by the strange crystal, her feet carrying her towards it as though she was in a daze.  As she got close enough to be bathed in its soft glow, she outstretched a hand, fingertips nearly brushing up against it.

Suddenly there came a loud, commanding voice from a doorway neither sister had noticed before.  “Intruders! How did you get in here!”

With yelps of alarm, both twins snapped out of their reverie.  The stranger was a pale-skinned woman with long black hair that changed to a dark blue near the tips, and large, round blue eyes.  She was dressed in a black leotard with flowery pink shoes, but none of this was what caught their attention. Rather, the fox ears and four fluffy tails did.

“You’re a kitsune!” Chloe exclaimed, unable to believe her eyes.

Elizabeth found her voice.  “Where are we? Are there more people like you around here?”  She and Chloe began to talk over each other.

“Your tails are so floofy!”

“Your fur is really pretty too, is it natural?”

“What’s that cool-looking staff for?”

“Is it foxfire?  Like, the magic version, not that bioluminescent stuff.”

“Wait, foxfire?  Why is this something I haven’t heard of?”

“You’ve never heard of a kitsune’s foxfire?  I thought it was really common.”

“Well, maybe, I’m not —”

“Answer the question!” the kitsune bellowed, silencing them both as the blue flame in her staff flared up.  Chloe nervously shrank back upon seeing this.

“Wait, sorry, what question?” Elizabeth asked hesitantly, having failed to mentally process it the first time.

The kitsune sighed in annoyance.  “How. Did. You. Get. Here?” The fire in her staff had died down, but her eyes still blazed with anger.

“Oh.  Um. Fae circle.”  Chloe coughed, looking down and scuffing her shoe.  “If that’s what you call them, anyway.”

“Like, a circle of mushrooms in the woods,” Elizabeth clarified, just in case.

The kitsune looked like she wanted to say something else, but at that moment, there came a loud  _ BAM!  _ from somewhere outside the room.  “Jamon!” the kitsune called, and a tall, imposing person with greyish skin, a face like that of a warthog, and a deadly-looking halberd appeared in the doorway.

“An ogre!” Chloe identified right away.  The ogre in question, who must have been Jamon, gave a snort, turning to glare at her.  Immediately, she quieted, looking back down at the ground.

Elizabeth stepped between Chloe and Jamon, opening her mouth to give him a piece of her mind, but the kitsune spoke before she had the chance.  “Take them down to the cells while I deal with whatever is going on outside.”

Jamon gave an affirmative grunt, moving to grasp Elizabeth’s arm.  “Hey! Let me go!” she protested, trying to tug her arm out of his grip, but it felt like her wrist had been encased in concrete.  He seized Chloe as well, eliciting a yelp from her, and began marching them out of the room.

“We’re not intruders, I promise!” Elizabeth insisted.  “You don’t really have to do this, do you?”

Jamon gave her a hard look.  “Miiko say cells.” And that was the end of that discussion. While it was clear he wasn’t trying to hurt the girls, his demeanor and the fact that he was nearly twice their size left no room for argument.  He set a brisk pace, leaving the twins no time to admire the elegant halls they traversed and little breath to speak, and it wasn’t long before Chloe could no longer keep up. When they reached a flight of stairs that seemed to go on forever, spiraling into an endless abyss, she let out a little, nearly inaudible whimper.

“Can we  _ please  _ at least slow down?” Elizabeth begged, to no avail.  Jamon led them down… and down and down and down and down and down and down.  With each stone step, the twins hoped that they were nearing the end, and as each curve of the staircase revealed nothing but more stairs, that hope waned.  Soon it began to feel like their whole existence was nothing but stone steps, stone walls, and Jamon’s stonelike grip on their arms.

In Chloe’s case, this also included a burning pain in her calves that increased with every step she took.  After about five minutes of walking down those accursed stairs, little sounds of pain began escaping her. Jamon gave no outward sign of having noticed, though he did slow his pace to something less grueling.

It took another fifteen minutes, but eventually the stairs did end.  Still, this brought only minimal relief, as the end itself was far from appealing.  Unlike the lavish interior of upstairs, their destination could scarcely be called more than a cave.  Bioluminescent moss growing on rocks provided the main light, setting a grim atmosphere. All other light appeared to come from underneath a murky green lake, and even that didn’t help much. Several round, iron cages hung suspended near the shore, including a few over the water itself.  Jamon unlocked one of these and half-guided, half-threw the twins into it, then locked it once more.

As he turned to leave, Elizabeth made one last attempt.  “Wait! How long are you going to leave us here?”

“Grumpf.”  Jamon headed up the stairs without even turning around, leaving Elizabeth and Chloe with only pain, anxiety, and each other for company.


	2. Chapter 2

“They can’t keep us here forever.”  Chloe rubbed her palms together anxiously, one foot tapping on the iron floor of the cell.

“Do you think they’ll at least feed us?”

“They’ve got to.”  She sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than anyone. “It would be… it would be barbaric if they didn’t!”

“I mean, we don’t know anything about them…”  Elizabeth bit her lower lip. “For all we know, maybe they are barbarians… but the decor upstairs was so nice!  That might not mean anything though…” She trailed off.

The foot tapping had turned to Chloe bouncing an entire leg.  “It was a kitsune and an ogre, right? Not exactly reassuring, given kitsunes are known to be mischievous and ogres are… well, ogres!”  She gestured widely with open palms, almost smacking the too-close bars of the cage.

Leaning back to avoid Chloe’s arm, Elizabeth bumped her head on the side of the sphere.  “Ow. Okay, we need to stay calm. It could be worse, right?”

Chloe turned critical eyes on her sister.  “Us. Staying calm. When we’ve been  _ locked in a cell  _ with no hope of escaping and no idea of how long we’ll be down here and if we’ll even get _ food.” _

Elizabeth wrapped an arm around Chloe’s shoulders.  “We can at least try, though, right? At least we have each other.  At least there are no guards around to be awful. At least there’s a little bit of light.  And maybe if I stretch…” She put an arm through the bottom of the sphere, reaching down in hopes of scooping up a bit of water in her palm to drink, but to no avail; even with the bars of the cage digging into her armpit and shoulder, her fingertips were still several inches away from the surface.  “Never mind.” She pulled her arm back out, massaging the places where the iron had bitten into it.

“This is hopeless,” Chloe moaned.  “Where are all the benevolent fae? Like… like…”  It was at that moment that all the knowledge she had of the sweeter side of mythology slipped away from her.

“Like… fairies?” Elizabeth suggested, sounding desperate to her own ears.  “No, that depends on the story… mermaids? I mean not the siren kind that lure sailors to their doom.  Why does every type of fae have to have a dark side?”

“Elves- no, halflings!”  A triumphant spark lit up Chloe’s eyes.  “Ha. I’ve never heard of a story where halflings were inherently malicious or bad!  We need a halfling.”

“If they exist here,” Elizabeth pointed out.  “I’ve never heard of any instances of them appearing in stories pre-Tolkien.”

“They’re common enough to be an official race in Dungeons and Dragons,” Chloe argued.  “If kitsunes and ogres can exist, why not halflings?”

“Because Tolkien,” Elizabeth deadpanned.  “Kitsunes and ogres are much — wait, what’s that?”  She pointed into the water, sure something had just moved.

Chloe looked, and sure enough, a shadow was beginning to rise out of the water.  It was mostly shrouded by the darkness of the cave, but the light from underneath the lake allowed a glimpse of a long, indistinct form with a vicious face.  A mess of something turquoise that might have been spines, seaweed, or hair radiated from the head, and luminous eyes of the same color glared up at them. Whoever or whatever it was bared a mouthful of sharp teeth and brandished what looked almost like a spear — no, it was a trident, as they could see as the figure swam toward the surface.

Chloe scooted back as much as she could in the confined space.  “Mermaid?” she suggested tentatively, though her voice shook. As they had just been discussing, mermaids often had malicious interpretations, and mermaid or not, the creature didn’t look friendly.

“Some mermaid,” Elizabeth murmured back, clutching the bars as if her life depended on it.  “You don’t think she — it — they will attack us, do you?”

Chloe opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, the creature disappeared back under the water.  “I… guess that’s a no.”

Elizabeth let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.  “One less thing to worry about. For now.” The last two words slipped out before she thought about them, and she clamped her hands over her mouth, wishing she could take them back.

A little yawn escaped Chloe, and she curled up as best she could.  “Maybe we should just… shut up and close our eyes for a while. I mean, if something does come to eat us, what are we going to go?  Scream at it?”

“What are we going to go?” Elizabeth repeated, giggling only a little hysterically.

“...do.”  Chloe groaned a little.  “Either way, this is a better existence than eternal stairs.”

Elizabeth nodded, and they lapsed into silence.  Time seemed to have ceased to exist. Eventually, Elizabeth dozed off, slumping down to the bottom of the cage and leaning her head against Chloe.  Chloe, for her part, had sprawled out as much as physically possible, using her arm for a pillow.

A loud  _ click  _ jolted them both awake.  Elizabeth couldn’t restrain a yelp at the sight of a person who  _ definitely  _ hadn’t been there before standing just outside their cell.  To add on to the fact that he seemed to have just materialized (though in reality he had probably entered while the sisters were asleep), the person wore a demonic-looking mask and a black-and-red outfit that practically screamed “I’M EDGY!”

“Who are you?” Chloe demanded, and if she hadn’t been as far back in the cage as possible already, she’d have backed away.

The stranger raised a finger to his lips, commanding silence.  He opened the cell door and began to walk away without checking to see if they were following.  “Do we trust this guy?” Elizabeth whispered.

“No,” Chloe replied flatly, “but he let us out.  What other choice do we have?”

“Stay here and… uh… yeah okay let’s go.”  Elizabeth stepped out of the cage onto the shore, stepping aside to allow Chloe to follow.  The twins hurried to catch up to their mysterious rescuer, but it seemed he knew of an exit they didn’t, because he certainly wasn’t on the stairs when they reached them.

“Something tells me he’s not acting on Miiko’s orders,” Chloe mumbled.  “Think he’s bad news? For everyone here, not just us.”

“Definitely,” Elizabeth agreed quietly.  “Though I do have to wonder if everyone here is bad news for us.”

“I’m sure we’ll find someone to help us.  Hey, maybe if we tell the people upstairs about him, they’ll like us?”

“Like might be a stretch, but it might at least convince them to trust us.  Assuming that isn’t nullified by the fact that we broke out of that cell in the first place.”

“Ohhh, I hadn’t thought about that.”  Chloe bit her lip. “Um… maybe… let’s see what happens?  We can tell them if they ask, yeah? And like, if we explain we didn’t break out ourselves, they might like… oh, I don’t know, but what else could we do?”

Elizabeth shrugged, unsure of how to reply.  They continued in silence, climbing the same seemingly endless staircase they had descended earlier.  Going up, it felt even longer and more grueling. Fortunately, after about ten minutes of trudging, they arrived at what seemed to be a central platform, decorated with strange flowers.

“Should we take a little break here?” Elizabeth suggested, bending from side to side to try and get her back to pop.

“Please,” Chloe agreed with a relieved sigh, flopping down and sprawling across the ground. She relished in the break from walking, the pain in her ankles and calves receding slightly as she lay there listlessly.

Elizabeth plopped down next to her, stretching her arms over her head.  “This is pretty. I wish we had gotten the chance to really look at it on the way down.”

Chloe hummed.  “A lot of things would be pretty in the faery world, or at least you’d think so.  Except that cave. And these damned stairs.”

“True,” Elizabeth agreed, inclining her head.  After a moment’s pause, she turned to her sister.  “Let me know when you’re ready to move on. I’m eager to figure out what’s going on and find out more about this place.”

The sisters spent about five more minutes in that place before Chloe stood, still a little sore, but she knew that wouldn’t go away for a while, and they didn’t have much time.  “I’m ready to go.”

Elizabeth nodded and stood as well, heading for where the stairs continued.  They began to climb once more, and it wasn’t long before Elizabeth noticed Chloe limping.  Without saying anything, she put one arm around Chloe’s shoulders to give her a little extra support, and they continued in that fashion up the rest of the stairs.  It took them longer than before due to the awkwardness of their position and the pain of Chloe’s legs, and it was nearly twenty minutes before they emerged into the grandiose hall they had passed through on what they could only assume was the previous day.

There wasn’t a soul around, and the great doors which had been open previously were now closed.  “Do you suppose it’s nighttime?” Chloe whispered.

Elizabeth took a look around, her gaze pausing on the grand door which she assumed led outside.  “Judging by the light, I’d guess early morning.”

“We should find somewhere safer before people start waking up or we’ll just look all the more suspicious.”  Chloe cast her gaze around, noting the hall they’d walked through the previous day. “As scary or, well, downright stupid as it seems, we arrived there — maybe we can find an exit there too.”

“I mean, we did sort of appear out of nowhere, but I guess it’s worth a try.”  That said, Elizabeth led the way through the doorway, still examining the decor, and as a result, walked right into someone.  “Gyah!”

“Hmm, what do we have here?”  The purring voice and arm that grabbed her belonged to a dashing young man with rumpled black hair, a purple cape over one shoulder, and a too-smooth smirk.  “You smell absolutely delicious.”

Elizabeth yanked her arm out of his grip.  “That’s creepy,” she declared. “Who are you, anyway?”

“Elizabeth!” Chloe hissed, trying to remind her sister that talking was the  _ absolute last thing on their to-do list right now,  _ and did she  _ really  _ want to end up as this vampire’s next snack?

“Right.”  If asked how she had understood what Chloe was trying to convey, Elizabeth wouldn’t have had a good answer, but regardless, she got the point, turning on her heel and hurrying back into the atrium area.  Chloe followed as quickly as she could, hoping the vampire wouldn’t come after them, but not really having high hopes.

Unfortunately, the vast open hall afforded them no reprieve, for in the time they’d been gone, someone else had entered.  This man had long white hair and a tall, muscular frame, and his faery species wasn’t immediately discernible. The twins clustered behind one of the wide pillars that stood near the middle of the hall, hoping to avoid his notice.  At that moment, the vampire Elizabeth had run into previously came running out of the hallway.

“Valkyon!”  The vampire went straight up to the white-haired man.  His lips were drawn into a frown. “Have you seen two girls pass through here?  Brown hair. I think they’re the girls Miiko imprisoned yesterday.”

The white-haired man, who must have been Valkyon, shook his head.  “No, but I’ll keep an eye out.”

The vampire sighed in frustration.  “They can’t have gone far. They just ran out here; Miiko will kill us if we don’t find them.”

“I’ll go see if Ezarel has found them,” Valkyon suggested, heading up a staircase and out of the twins’ sight.

The vampire nodded, heading towards the grand double doors.  “I’m going to see if they went outside.”

A few moments passed as the two left.  After it became apparent no one else was going to show up, Chloe let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.  “That was way too close.”

Elizabeth nodded fervently.  “I guess outside isn’t an option, and I don’t think it’s safe to stay here… what about there?”  She pointed to an elaborate doorway just to the right of the door that led to where they had arrived.

“It’s as good as anywhere else, I’d imagine.”  Chloe headed in that direction, breathing a sigh of relief as she peeked her head in without seeing anyone inside.  “It looks safe.” She stepped all the way in, out of sight from the main hall, and Elizabeth followed.

Inside the room, they were greeted by a welcome sight indeed: food.  A large, beehive-shaped structure with different compartments in which food was stored stood in the center of the room.  The walls were lined with shelves, and a table in one corner was covered in food items mid-preparation. Elizabeth’s mouth watered looking at it all, and her stomach rumbled, but then a nasty thought occurred to her.  “Do you think this stuff is safe to eat? I mean, faery food… the stories say that if you eat faery food, you’re stuck in the world of faeries forever.”

“Not all of them,” Chloe countered.  She hesitated. “Maybe we should take some, but not eat it right away, until we know more.  No story I know of says the mere act of  _ taking  _ food is taboo.”

“Yes good that sounds good.”  Not willing to hesitate any longer, Elizabeth reached for the nearest item of food, which happened to be most of a loaf of bread that stood on the preparation table.  Before she even had the chance to touch it, however, a hand clamped around her wrist, causing her to freeze. Chloe hastily backed into the corner farthest from the newcomer, near a door that presumably led to the freezer room.

As Elizabeth turned to get a look at her latest captor (she was growing tired of being grabbed by this point), the snootiest voice she had ever heard spoke in her ear.  “Didn’t anyone ever teach you not to steal?”

“You’re not what I’m thinking!” Elizabeth burst out.  “I mean, I’m not — gah — bleh.” She gave up on words, taking a moment to gather her thoughts and examine her latest potential enemy.  He had vivid blue hair tied back in a ponytail that reached past his waist, pointy ears that marked him an elf or something similar, and brilliant seafoam green eyes that gleamed with mischief or malice, boring into her own.  Chloe was just glad he didn’t appear to have noticed her yet.

“What are you doing here?” the elf demanded.

Elizabeth made another attempt at speech.  “We were blergh — gher — gleh — words. Words are a thing.”

Chloe sighed, reluctantly stepping forward to help her sister.  “We got here through a fae circle.” The elf glanced over at her.  “We don’t mean any harm. We were just looking for an exit.”

“And you expect me to believe this why, exactly?”

Before either sister had a chance to respond, an all-too-familiar voice spoke from the doorway.  “Ezarel, what is going on?” The kitsune, Miiko, looked extremely aggravated, and this increased tenfold when she noticed the girls.  “You two!”

“I’ve found the thieves,” Ezarel replied smugly.

“We’re not thieves!” Elizabeth insisted.

“Then why was your hand so close to that bread?”

Elizabeth opened her mouth, ready with a scathing reply, but before she could say anything, Chloe clamped her hand over her mouth.  At the same moment, four others entered the pantry. Three of them were familiar to the twins: Jamon, Valkyon and the vampire. The fourth, however, was unknown to them.  He had short, wavy blue-black hair, glasses, and a hesitant smile, but his most noticeable features were a long, thin tail that flicked nervously behind him and a spiraling silvery-blue unicorn horn in the center of his forehead.

There was a long and awkward silence as the newcomers stared at the girls.  Eventually, Chloe coughed, looking back to Ezarel. “We were starving, but we didn’t know if we could eat without being stuck here,” she explained, “so we decided to take some food for later.”

“I knew it!” Miiko exclaimed, her tails lashing with agitation.  “They stole the bread and milk!”

Elizabeth tried to say that there hadn’t been any milk, but since Ezarel had caught her, her tongue seemed to have abandoned her.  “What — there wasn’t — we — gyeh — bleh — nooo.” She sounded pathetic even to her own ears.

“Miiko, what is going on?”  The unicorn man finally spoke, seeming very timid.

“These two somehow managed to break into HQ and steal rations,” Miiko explained, her eyes still fixed on the sisters.

“Um…”  All eyes in the room turned to the vampire.  “Actually, Miiko, a kid from the refuge stole the rations.  I was coming to tell you before that girl,” he nodded at Elizabeth, “ran into me.”

“See!  We told you we weren’t thieves!”  Chloe couldn’t keep a tone of triumph out of her voice.

“However, the alchemy lab was burglarized,” Valkyon interrupted.  Chloe had to resist the urge to groan, certain they would be blamed for whatever item had gone missing. “A dragon tear was stolen.”

“Dragons?!” Elizabeth exclaimed, unable to restrain herself.  “You have dragons here? Like, actual real live dragons?”

Meanwhile, Chloe’s jaw had fallen open, her eyes wide.  “Dragons… dragons.” She seemed fixated on the word, as if the rest of her vocabulary had gotten up and left.

“Don’t try to pretend you didn’t know that,” Miiko snapped.

“Uh, Miiko, perhaps before we go accusing them, we should hear their story,” the unicorn suggested meekly.

There was a moment of silence as the kitsune contemplated this, before she heaved a sigh.  “Fine. How did you two get here?”

It occurred to Elizabeth that Ezarel was still holding her wrist, though his grip had relaxed as his focus shifted.  Her face burning, she pulled her arm away and hastily tried to explain their predicament. “We were walking in the forest near our home, and there was a circle, and we — wait.  There was a fae circle. Not just any circle. Anyway, we’ve both always loved the idea of magic, so we stepped into it to see what would happen, and the next thing we knew, we were in that room with the great big crystal!”

“Did you know humans are naturally attracted to shiny things?  This is believed to be because of—” Elizabeth put a hand on Chloe’s shoulder as if to say  _ that’s not relevant here, please stop talking,  _ and Chloe fell silent.  It was just as well, as the room’s other occupants simply stared at her blankly.

Ezarel scowled.  “Of course we would end up stuck with two clueless humans.”

“Stuck?”  Elizabeth tilted her head to one side.  “What do you mean stuck?”

“Fae circles only work in one direction,” Ezarel clarified, looking as though he smelled something unpleasant.  “So yes, you’re stuck here.”

“Oh no.”  Chloe’s straight-faced deadpan drew the whole room’s attention once again.  “We’re stuck here. Whatever shall we do?”

“I’m sure we’ll find a use for you,” Ezarel replied in a mock-comforting tone, giving her a long, hard look.  “As bait, perhaps… or, no, I know! You can scrub and wax all the floors!”

“With the texture of cleaning products?  I don’t think so.” There was a challenge in Chloe’s eyes as she stared down the elf.

Valkyon interceded, addressing Elizabeth and Chloe.  “That aside, how did you two escape?”

It was Elizabeth who answered.  “There was this really sketchy-looking guy in a black mask.  He came in, opened up our cell, then vanished, so we just went up the stairs.”

“Um, I don’t think they know what sketchy means,” Chloe whispered to her sister.

“A really creepy, untrustworthy-looking guy,” Elizabeth corrected herself.

The other occupants of the room looked horrified at this news, Miiko especially.  “No way?! If he’s back, we have more important things to deal with.” She started barking out orders, the twins seemingly forgotten, and soon the only people left in the room with them were Miiko, the unicorn and the vampire.

“I guess we don’t have to walk back down those stairs,” Chloe mumbled to her sister, but before Elizabeth could reply, Miiko interrupted.

“And take them back to the cells!”

She swept out of the room, and tears began to burn the corners of Chloe’s eyes, less at the thought of going back to the cells, and more so about the thought of climbing back down those horrendous stairs when she’d already been standing for what she was certain must have at least been an hour.  Elizabeth engulfed Chloe in a hug, squeezing her eyes shut and trying to block out the less-than-kind thoughts overtaking her mind.

The vampire turned to the unicorn.  “Hey, Kero, I haven’t had the time to look for where the kid hid the rations.  You’ll do it, won’t you?”

Kero lashed his tail but didn’t argue.  “Sure thing, Nevra,” he replied in a somewhat resigned tone.

Nevra grinned, brushing past Kero and the girls.  With a sigh, Kero turned to them, offering an apologetic smile.  “Well… I guess you have to go back to the cells?”

“Wait!” Elizabeth protested.  “Are you really going to make us go back down all those stairs?”  She tried to make it sound like she was asking for both of their sakes, rather than just Chloe’s.

Kero hummed.  “Well, that is what Miiko ordered…”  The twins practically wilted at this, and Kero hurried to correct himself.  “That’s what she ordered, but maybe… maybe if… I know, maybe if you help find the missing rations, she’ll realize you’re not thieves and stop trying to imprison you!  If you’re willing to help, that is?”

“Yes please anything to avoid those stairs,” Chloe blurted out.  “You’re actually my hero.”

Kero looked a little bemused by her comment, but said nothing about it.  “Well, come on then… I’ll try to explain to you about our world as we search.”  He left the pantry, the sisters hurrying to follow.

“So… what is this place, exactly?” Chloe queried.

“You’re in the HQ of the Guard of El-” Kero began, but that was as far as he got before Chloe interrupted him.

“Guard?  Like, protecting the world and stuff?”

“Yes, it’s divided into four different-”

“Ooh, is it divided by species?  Or is it more of a skills thing like the Orders in Guild Wars 2?”

“Maybe it’s like the Pact.  You know, the three Orders under the Marshal and Commander. Just, there’s an entire Guard for the Marshal and Commander.”

“It’s divided into four different Guards, with the Light Guard at the head of the other three,” Kero managed between the girls’ excited rambling.

“So it is like the Pact!” Elizabeth exclaimed.  “What are the other Guards? Miiko’s the leader, right?  Does she have a second in command?”

“Yes, she does, his name is Leiftan-”

“What about the other Guards?” Chloe asked as they exited HQ.

“Well, there’s the Absynthe Guard.  They specialize in alchemy and the-” Kero began, only to be once again interrupted.

“Definitely the Pact,” Chloe hummed.  “I mean, depending on if you can consider alchemy falling under the Priory’s umbrella, can you?”

“I think so, but it all depends on the other two Guards, but right now I want to know more about Absynthe.  Oh, by the way, did you know absynthe is also a highly alcoholic—”

“The leader of the Absynthe Guard is Ezarel,” Kero continued in a slightly louder voice, trying desperately to hold their attention.  “He’s the elf you met earlier. He may be abrasive, but he’s also—”

“You mean the one who grabbed me?”  Elizabeth hadn’t quite realized how curious she was until that moment.  “Is he always that snooty? And wait—”

“He sounded like a rich British prick,” Chloe observed.

“—what about the rest of the Guard?”  Elizabeth gave Chloe a hard nudge with her shoulder.

Kero raised his voice.  “The Shadow Guard specializes in exploration and dealing with subjects of a more… sensitive matter.”

“Like spies?” Elizabeth asked, her eyes lighting up.

“Yes, like spies,” Kero agreed, seeming relieved that she was finally listening.  “Their leader is Nevra, the—”

“That awful vampire who kept trying to hit on us?” Elizabeth interrupted.  Nevra had not made a good first impression on her.

“This is totally the Pact, they’re totally the Order of Whispers,” Chloe exclaimed, not even listening to her sister.

“They just need a Vigil,” Elizabeth pointed out.  “Ooh, Kero, are the last Guard, like, warrior-types?  You know, courage and honor and charging into battle and stuff?”

Kero nodded. “The Obsidian Guard, led by Valkyon, specializes in—”

“We found the Pact if they were faeries!”  Chloe was trying to keep from laughing.

Elizabeth’s eyes widened, and she made a  _ pfffft  _ noise.  “Does that mean Miiko is Trahearne?”

“Miiko as a plant.  Now that’s a thought!”  They’d passed through a bustling marketplace as they chattered, just now arriving at what seemed to be the edge of a village.

“I wonder if they have plant people here,” Elizabeth mused.  “I mean, probably not sylvari, but like dryads or hamadryads or whatever.”

“Can you two  _ please  _ focus on the mission!”  The twins finally noticed that Kero had been growing increasingly stressed throughout the whole conversation and seemed to be vibrating slightly, his tail lashing rapidly from side to side.

Chloe ducked her head, mumbling that she was sorry.  Elizabeth suddenly found it impossible to make eye contact with Kero.  “I’ll shut up now,” she said in a somewhat subdued tone.

Kero’s tail stilled, and he took a deep breath.  “Thank you. I’m sorry. Anyway, welcome to the Refuge of El.”  He gestured to the village that lay before them.

“A guard that handles conflict and a refuge…” Chloe mused.  “It’s almost like you’re in a war.”

“Well, not a war exactly,” Kero clarified.  “How do I put this? There’s… a certain amount of chaos in the world of Eldarya at the moment.”

Chloe couldn’t deny her curiosity, but recognized it probably wasn’t her place to pry.  “So… we’re looking for rations, right?”

“That’s correct.  Bread, specifically, and almost certainly in a place a child could reach.”

“You mean like right there?”  Elizabeth pointed to a nearby shrub with something poking out from underneath.  Going over to investigate, she found that yes, there was a loaf of bread clumsily hidden there.

“Nicely spotted!” Chloe cheered.  “I really need glasses…”

“I’d offer you mine if I hadn’t left them in my drawer,” Elizabeth said ruefully.

“We should head back to HQ,” Kero suggested.  “The sooner we get that bread back to the pantry and report to Miiko, the better.”

“Right.”  Chloe paused.  “...is she going to yell when she sees us?”

Kero hummed.  “She might. She is usually very reasonable, but she does take some getting used to.”

“Oh… I’m not very good when people yell.”  She fidgeted with her shirt, looking downwards.

Kero looked awkward at this.  “I see… anyway, I’ll stand up for you.”  The three re-entered HQ and headed for the pantry.  When they entered, they were greeted with an obnoxious grin by none other than Ezarel.

“Hello, you two.”  He somehow managed to make the simple greeting sound arrogant, grinning broadly at Elizabeth and Chloe.  “Aren’t you two supposed to be down in a cell right about now? Miiko will be furious.”

“We’ve heard,” Chloe quipped.  “Actually, we were helping you.”

“Were you now?  Pray, tell me what two pathetic humans could possibly do to help me.”

In response, Elizabeth slapped the bread onto the table.  “That’s what.”

“So we were going to go see Miiko now,” Chloe hummed.  “To reason with her. You know. About, like, not walking down that death trap- I mean those stairs.”

“What makes you think she’ll listen to you?” Ezarel challenged.

Kero fidgeted.  “I was wondering if, ah, maybe you’d be willing to help us talk to her…?”

“I might consider it…” Ezarel began, and Kero’s face brightened.  “...in exchange for a double ration of cookies and honey.”

“That’s extortion,” Elizabeth declared without thinking.

At the same moment, Chloe mumbled, “Take notes, Elizabeth.”

“I don’t see what that it’s any of your concern,” Ezarel told Elizabeth haughtily, looking down his nose at her.  She crossed her arms and glowered back at him.

“Fine,” Kero conceded.  “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome!”  Ezarel’s smile widened further.

Chloe coughed awkwardly, scuffing her shoe on the ground.  “So, should we… yknow, go…?”

“Yes, let’s,” Kero agreed, hurrying out of the pantry.  Elizabeth and Chloe scurried after the unicorn, with Ezarel following at a deliberately leisurely pace.

As they entered the Crystal Room, the twins discovered Miiko talking to someone they had never seen before.  His fae race wasn’t immediately discernible, but he had a long white coat, bright green eyes, and blond hair with a black blaze in front and a short, thin braid on either side of his gentle-looking face.

“Leiftan, we’re going to need to…”  Miiko trailed off as she noticed the blond looking over her shoulder, a surprised expression on his face as he noticed the girls.  She turned around, and her face immediately twisted into a scowl. “Kero, Ezarel, why aren’t they in their cell?”

Ezarel’s smile faltered, and he didn’t quite meet her gaze.  Kero shifted from foot to foot. “Well, they helped me find the missing rations, so I… uh… I just thought…”  He fell silent under Miiko’s intense gaze, looking to Ezarel for help but receiving none.

Chloe sighed, summoning all her courage, and stepping forward.  “We wanted to prove to you that we weren’t the thieves, so you’d give us a chance.”  As she spoke, she met Leiftan’s eyes and paused for a moment, finding herself momentarily lost in them.  He gave her a warm smile in return, effectively turning her legs to jelly.

As Miiko opened her mouth to reply, Leiftan set a hand on her arm.  “I think you should hear them out, Miiko.”

His voice was a smooth, mellow tenor that immediately caused all sorts of processing errors in Chloe, and Elizabeth suddenly found herself supporting most of the weight of a pile of twin sister mush.

The kitsune huffed, training her eyes on the girls and raising one eyebrow at Chloe’s behaviour. “If you insist.  What do you propose we do with them?”

Leiftan moved to Chloe’s other side to help Elizabeth support her, as she seemed on the verge of fainting.  “I think we ought to give them the opportunity to join the Guard, or at least stay as guests rather than prisoners.”

“We may be able to find a use for them.”  Elizabeth jumped at the sound of Valkyon’s voice; she hadn’t noticed when he and Nevra entered the Crystal Room.

Leiftan hummed in agreement.  “With our situation as precarious as it is, we need all the help we can get, and I for one would be glad to have these two around.”  He looked right at Chloe as he said this, and his soft green gaze became too much for her. She looked like she wanted to say something, but whatever it was would never be known, for as she opened her mouth, black spots flooded her vision, and she collapsed into Leiftan’s arms as consciousness fled her.

Nevra looked both girls up and down.  “If nothing else, we could always use some extra cute girls to fill out some half-empty beds.”

Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed.  Making sure that Leiftan was still holding Chloe, she marched up to Nevra.  “Don’t. You. DARE. I don’t care if that’s a joke, I don’t find it funny! What about this situation made you think that was an okay thing to say?”

“Whoa, slow down there, firecracker!” Nevra exclaimed, throwing up his hands.

“I don’t care if I’m not in a position to be giving orders, I don’t want to hear you say anything like that about me or my sister!”

Elizabeth paused to take a deep breath, and Miiko interceded.  “That’s ENOUGH. We have more important matters to attend to. Leiftan, take Chloe to the infirmary.”  The blond nodded, leaving the room with the younger twin. “Now… if they are going to stay here, they’re going to make themselves useful.  They will have to join the Guard.”


	3. Chapter 3

As Leiftan carried Chloe out of the Crystal Room, Elizabeth followed Kero, hoping her sister would be okay.  “So um, what exactly do I need to do to join the Guard?” she asked Kero. “Also what exactly does the Guard do?”

“Whoa, one question at a time, okay?” Kero protested.  “I’ll start with your second question. Would you believe me if I told you the Grand Crystal used to be more than ten times its current size?”

Elizabeth blinked.  “Whoa. That’s… kind of a strange thought.”

“And yet, it is only a fraction of its original size.  It was destroyed by… but that’s not important. The point is, it is the source of maana, the energy that all Eldaryans need to live, sort of like a second oxygen.  With the crystal in pieces, the world is much more unstable and dangerous than it once was. Currently, the Guard’s main purpose is to protect what’s left of it, as well as Eldarya itself, and to search for pieces of the Crystal.”

“Wow.”  Elizabeth couldn’t think of much else to say.  “No wonder Miiko was so upset when Chloe and I turned up in the Crystal Room!”

“So, you passed the test?  Number nine was pretty hard, right?”  Elizabeth let out a yelp as Nevra seemed to appear out of nowhere.  Glaring, she pointedly brushed past him without answering. He seemed put out but didn’t try to pursue, allowing her and Kero to pass and begin to climb the staircase that led to the main entrance.

As they ascended, turning left to head up a second staircase, Valkyon fell in step beside Elizabeth.  “So, did you end up in Shadow or Absynthe?”

“Nothing yet,” said Elizabeth.  “What, you think I won’t end up in Obsidian?”

“Forgive me for saying this, but I doubt you would be able to keep up.”  Valkyon’s tone was mild but apologetic. “Obsidian can be quite physically demanding.”

“Who knows, I might surprise you.”  Elizabeth kept her tone light, trying to remind herself that he didn’t know that she’d spent half a year moving furniture and was no slouch when it came to physical activity.

Valkyon shrugged, turning away as they reached the top of the stairs.  “If you say so.”

Kero led Elizabeth along a sort of balcony overlooking the Hall of Doors and through an unobtrusive brown door.  Beyond that door lay a small, cozy-looking library containing a pedestal with what seemed to be a dictionary in a language Elizabeth didn’t know lying open on it, several chairs for reading, wall-to-wall shelves packed with books, and an obnoxiously smirking blue-haired elf.

“Did you already take the test?”  Did Ezarel’s voice always have to sound so mocking?

“You know very well she hasn’t yet,” Kero retorted.

Ezarel looked put out.  “I just wanted to know which Guard would be getting an extra slave first.”

“Hopefully not yours,” Elizabeth muttered.  Aloud, she said, “The Guard of El, obviously.  What other Guard is there around here?”

Elizabeth smirked as it became clear Ezarel hadn’t been expecting his wit to be met in kind.  “Just… let me know which of us will have to deal with you when you’ve finished.” He hastily left the room, and Elizabeth cackled.

Kero gave her a concerned glance.  “Are you all right?”

Elizabeth nodded, swallowing more laughter, which she had often been told sounded like a flock of geese.  “I believe I’ve won this round.”

“Oooookay then.”  Kero began to rummage through drawers.  “Are you ready to begin? I must warn you, there may be some questions that you find difficult to understand, so if you need clarification on anything, just ask.”

“Got it.”  Still wearing a slightly triumphant grin, Elizabeth sat down in one of the reading chairs to wait for Kero to find what he was looking for.

Kero read Elizabeth a series of increasingly strange questions, many of them seeming entirely arbitrary.  It seemed odd, but she figured that if it worked for the Guard, she wasn’t going to question it. It wasn’t long before they reached the final question.  “Last of all, which Guard would you like to join?”

“Wait, what?”  Elizabeth stared at Kero incredulously.  “After all that, I just get to choose?”

Kero shook his head.  “No, your preference only gives you one point in the direction of that Guard, though it does still affect your score.  So would you prefer to join Absynthe, Shadow, or Obsidian?”

Elizabeth considered, trying to distance her judgment from the Guard leaders and make her decision based on each Guard’s specialty.  “Hmm… Absynthe, I think.”

"Give me a moment.”  Kero counted her scores, looking up after he had finished.  “Well, it looks like you’ll be joining the Absynthe Guard! Congratulations.”

“Sweet!”  Elizabeth loved the idea of learning alchemy, and although she wasn’t hugely enthusiastic about being in the Guard led by Ezarel, she had to admit that his sense of humor was much like her own underneath the annoyance factor.  “What should I do now?”

“Well, now you’re going to need a companion.”

“A companion… as in like a partner or mentor, or…?”  Elizabeth trailed off, uncertain what he meant.

Kero laughed.  “Not quite. Companions are creatures that are given to every Guard member, to assist with exploration and deliver messages.”

“Ohh, so more like pets, then?”  Elizabeth couldn’t keep the excitement out of her voice; she loved animals.

“If that’s what you call them on your world, then yes,” Kero agreed a little hesitantly.

“You said everyone in the Guard has one, right?  What’s yours?”

“I have a seryphon.”  Kero whistled, and an owl-looking creature with white feathers, flame-colored wing tips, and paws instead of talons flew down from where it had been roosting atop a bookshelf.

“That.  Is. ADORABLE.”

Kero chuckled.  “Yes, it is, and I’m sure your companion will be too.  But first, I have to get the questionnaire… I believe I left it in my room.”

Elizabeth fidgeted, winding her fingers around each other.  “Should I come with you or just wait here?”

“I believe it will be easier if you follow me.”  He led her back out of the library and downstairs to the Hall of the Guards, which led to the Crystal Room but also had rows of smaller doors that Elizabeth hadn’t paid much attention to before.  “Wait right here and I’ll grab it for you. It shouldn’t take long.”

Kero disappeared down the corridor.  Uncertain what to do with herself, Elizabeth began to pace back and forth, restless but unwilling to go too far.  She wondered idly if Chloe was doing okay and when she would wake up.

“Boo!”  A voice sounded from behind.

“Blaah!”  Elizabeth let out an undignified yelp and whirled to see who had sneaked up on her.

Nevra grinned at her, showing his fangs.  “What is such a charming young lady doing in a corridor alone?”  Not giving her a chance to answer, he added, “Were you waiting for me?”

Elizabeth scoffed.  “Not likely. I’m waiting for Kero to come back with the companion questionnaire.”

Nevra chuckled.  “Have you and your sister joined Guards, then?”

Elizabeth’s expression darkened.  “I have, though I don’t know about Chloe.  I don’t—” She stopped. She had been planning on saying,  _ I don’t see that it’s any of your business,  _ but since he was a Guard leader, in a way, it was his business.  Her scowl deepened.

Nevra laughed.  “Well, I’ll leave you with Kero. Come find me when you both know what Guards you’re in!”  He winked, continuing on his way before Elizabeth could respond.

At that moment, Kero returned, questionnaire in hand.  “Are you alright? I heard a yelp earlier.”

“Nevra,” Elizabeth explained.  “I’m fine. Anyway, companion questionnaire?”

“Right.”  Kero guided her through another set of questions, which made no more sense than the first. This time when he tallied up her scores, he also presented her with a black egg with a darker black and white ring at the top.  “It looks like your first companion is a Becola!”

“A what now?”

“Hard to explain, but you’ll see once it hatches.”  Kero handed her an odd-looking, presumably magical device with a bed of grass and a sort of heat lamp, as well as a small bag of bamboo shoots.  “Use this incubator to hatch it. Once it hatches, it can pretty much take care of itself as long as you leave it a decent supply of bamboo shoots.”

Elizabeth took the objects, gently placing the egg in the strange incubator to make it easier to carry the things.  At that moment, Chloe entered the corridor.

“Hi Elizabeth, Kero!” she greeted.  “Guess what Guard I’m in?”

Kero looked surprised. “You took the questionnaire?  How, if I may ask?”

“There was a girl with rabbit ears when I went to the library,” Chloe explained.  “She said her name was Ykhar, I think. She told me you were busy, and helped me with the questionnaire.  But seriously, guess which Guard I’m in!”

“Um…”  Elizabeth paused, not wanting to get it wrong, then gave up.  “The Light Guard?” she joked instead of trying to answer seriously.

Chloe giggled.  “I’m in Shadow!”

Elizabeth scowled, her hands clenching into fists.  “Great. Lovely. Just fantastic. Nevra had better seriously watch himself.”

Chloe rolled her eyes.  “Just relax, I’m sure he won’t try anything, and besides, I can take care of myself.”

Elizabeth let out a huff.  “Okay. I get that. I just… I don’t trust him.  Or particularly like him.”

She seemed to have more she wanted to say, but Chloe interrupted, changing the subject.  “So what Guard are you in, Elizabeth?”

“Absynthe,” Elizabeth replied, brightening a little.  “Not that I’m excited to work with Ezarel, but I’m really interested to learn about alchemy.”

Kero coughed, catching the girls’ attention.  “If it’s alright, I need to give Chloe the companion questionnaire.”

Neither girl had an issue with it, so he quickly took Chloe through the second questionnaire as well, and she ended up with a bluish-gray egg with light blue swirls — a Sabali, according to Kero.  She immediately fell in love with it.

“Now, once they hatch, you can send your companions out exploring,” Kero explained.  “They can bring back many different treasures. Take care of them enough and you’ll be able to see them grow, and… well, I’ll let you experience it for yourself.”  He cleared his throat. “You should probably find the boys and tell them what Guards you’re in. They seemed very interested. While you’re at it, you could ask them if they have a first mission for you.”

“Sounds good.  Thank you so much!”  Elizabeth impulsively hugged Kero.  The unicorn seemed quite surprised, but after a moment, he hesitantly hugged her back.

Chloe, meanwhile, was already walking away, enraptured by the idea of going on a mission, or, as she saw it, going on an adventure.  “Elizabeeeeth!”

“Sorry, coming!”  Elizabeth gave Kero a grin and a casual two-fingered salute before scrambling to catch up with her sister.  In her haste, she didn’t notice Ezarel until she barreled into him.

“What are you doing?” Ezarel demanded, looking thoroughly unimpressed.  “Are you blind?”

“No, I’m Elizabeth.”  Elizabeth hoped she wasn’t blushing, embarrassed at having crashed into someone again.

Ezarel rolled his eyes.  “Nevertheless, is it over?  Did you figure out which one of us is going to have to put up with you?”

Elizabeth gave him an evil grin.  “Sorry. You’re stuck with me.”

“I’m in the Shadow Guard,” Chloe added.

Surprisingly, Ezarel smiled, a mischievous glint in his eyes.  “Wonderful, another slave. Do you know how to clean? I need someone to clean my room.”  He completely ignored the younger twin.

“Oh, yes.”  Elizabeth poured fake enthusiasm into her voice.  “I know all about cleaning. I’ll gladly teach you everything I know since it’s clear nobody ever taught you how to be useful!”

“Oh?  What’s this I hear?”  Ezarel raised an eyebrow. “Is the little human implying she’s superior to elvish nobility?”

“You’re nobility?” Chloe asked in surprise, once again receiving no acknowledgement.

“Implying?” Elizabeth demanded in mock surprise.  “Why would I imply what I can just say outright?”

Ezarel tutted.  “We aren’t going to get very far if you’re already back-chatting your superiors.  It sounds like you’re missing your prison cell, do you want to go back?”

“Oh no, I’m not missing it, I know exactly where it is!” Elizabeth protested, barely containing laughter.

“Elizabeth,” Chloe begged.  “You can’t stand around doing… whatever it is you’re doing all day!”

Elizabeth gave Ezarel a fake apologetic look.  “Sorry, The Sister has spoken: you’re not worth my time.”  She turned on her heel, ready to ditch Ezarel.

“Do you have a mission for us?” Chloe asked, internally pleading he’d pay attention this time.

“I don’t have anything other than my room.”  He didn’t look at Chloe as he replied, still fixated on Elizabeth.

“Okay, well, thanks again, let’s go!”  Chloe tugged Elizabeth towards the forge, hoping that her sister wouldn’t get caught up in another round of banter with her Guard leader.

Elizabeth followed Chloe a little reluctantly but mostly satisfied with the outcome of the conversation.  “What an idiot,” she muttered, still grinning to herself.

“So, did you finally escape?”

Chloe yelped in surprise, whirling to stare at Nevra.  “You’re more talented than I thought,” he continued.

“I’m sure you—”

Chloe stamped on Elizabeth’s foot.  “We weren’t trying to escape.”

“Really?  Well, I guess we run into each other often.”  Nevra paused, seeming contemplative, though it was hard to tell if he was sincere.  “Or maybe it’s destiny.”

“Or by chance,” Chloe suggested.

“Or by chance,” Nevra conceded.  “So, this time do you both know what Guard you’re in?”

“Oh, yes!”  Chloe’s face lit up.

“Oh, perfect… so what Guards are you in?”  He glanced at Elizabeth for a moment, as though to reinvite her into the conversation, before turning back to Chloe.

“I’m in the Shadow Guard with you.”  Chloe puffed out her chest a little.

“...Absynthe,” Elizabeth added a little reluctantly.

“Well, in that case, don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything.  I’ll take good care of you.” Chloe stamped on Elizabeth’s foot again as she opened her mouth.  Glancing at Elizabeth, Nevra added, “Good luck with Ezarel.”

Elizabeth gritted her teeth, giving Nevra a nod; it was the most polite response she could muster.

“Do you have a mission for us?” Chloe asked, remembering what Kero had said.

“I’m afraid not.”  Nevra’s grin finally fell away.  “Sorry.”

“It’s alright.”  Chloe paused, wondering if she should get to know her Guard leader a little bit, before deciding that even though she’d let Ezarel and Elizabeth banter, the longer they stayed, the more likely her sister was to murder Nevra.  “We’ll see you later!” She took her sister’s arm, tugging her out of the forge.

Valkyon approached them in the hall.  “You are all alone?”

“Ish,” Elizabeth replied.  “We wanted to see if our new Guard leaders had any missions for us, but no luck.”

“You are in different Guards?” Valkyon noted.

Chloe nodded.  “I’m in the Shadow Guard.”

“I ended up in Absynthe,” Elizabeth added.  “Neither Ezarel nor Nevra had anything for us.”

Valkyon closed his eyes, thinking.  “I see.” He opened his eyes, looking at the twins in turn.  “So you are in Ezarel’s Guard, and you are in Nevra’s. That’s good.  Even if not everyone is a fan of his methods, Ezarel is quite patient.  And though Nevra can be…” He paused, looking for the right word.

“Brazen?” Chloe suggested.  Valkyon nodded.

“Even so, he is reliable,” the Obsidian leader explained.  “He has never personally failed a mission.”

“That’s… a bit of a relief, I guess,” Elizabeth commented, not sure how else to respond.  “Speaking of missions, would you happen to have one for us?”

Valkyon thought about it, then shook his head.  “Well, thanks anyway,” said Chloe a little disappointedly.

Valkyon walked away, and out of the corner of her eye, Chloe noticed Kero talking to a young boy with floppy ears and tiny ram’s horns.  She nudged Elizabeth. “Hey, look over there.”

Elizabeth turned to see what Chloe was looking at.  Noticing Kero, she waved. “Should we see what’s going on?” she suggested.

Chloe nodded and began to approach, though she quickly covered her ears as she heard the young boy crying.

Elizabeth winced at the high pitch but determinedly approached Kero.  “Hi again. What’s going on?”

“Young Mery here has lost his companion,” Kero explained, looking as though he was at the edge of his patience.

“Maybe we could help find it?” Elizabeth suggested, hoping to get the kid to stop crying.  “What sort of companion is it?”

“You would be lifesavers,” Kero replied fervently.  “It’s a crylasm.”

“A what?”  Elizabeth was getting tired of having to ask for clarification on everything.

“Like a fluffy ball of white wool with a face, short legs, and blue wings,” Kero described.

Elizabeth tried to picture it.  “So like a flying sheep, basically?”

“If that’s how you want to think of it, yes.”

At that moment, the little boy let out a wail.  “I want my frieeeeeend!”

Elizabeth barely restrained a grimace.  Crouching so she was on his level, she assured him, “It’ll be okay.  My sister and I are going to find your friend for you.” She stood and turned back to Kero.  “As soon as we know where to look and how to get it back, that is.”

“You could try tempting it with an Eskimo Pie,” Kero suggested.  “Mery, where did you last see your crylasm?”

Mery sniffled.  “I was playing with it outside, near a burrow.  It seemed hungry, so I went to go get it some food, and when I came back, it was gone!”

Kero frowned.  “Is that why you stole the bread from the pantry?”

Mery looked sulky.  “Maybe. Yes. I want my friend back!”

“Companions don’t eat the way we do,” Kero explained, and Elizabeth had to admire how gentle he was keeping his tone.  “They have their own special food.”

Elizabeth interrupted.  “So, Eskimo Pie… from that market you showed us earlier, right?  Then take it to the burrow and try to find a sheep with wings?”

“That’s right.”  Kero went back to comforting Mery, and Elizabeth pulled her sister away, stepping outside of the main HQ building and out of earshot in order to explain their new mission, which Chloe had missed while protecting her ears from Mery’s screaming.

“We don’t know where the burrow is,” Chloe pointed out.

“Um…”  Elizabeth paused.  “Hi, I’m dumb as rocks.  I guess I just assumed it was right outside the walls.  Think we should go back and ask or…?” She trailed off a little awkwardly.

“Why don’t we go buy that Eskimo Pie,” Chloe suggested.  “Maybe we’ll meet someone who can help us.”

“Right.  Yes. Good idea.”  Scrambling to pull her thoughts together, Elizabeth barely managed to notice Ezarel in time to avoid crashing into him yet again.  “Oh, it’s you.”

Chloe quickly slipped past the two to go locate an Eskimo Pie, grinning at Elizabeth as she left.  Meanwhile, Ezarel crossed his arms and gave Elizabeth a mock-pitying look. “Are you lost?”

“No, like I said, I’m Elizabeth, and I’m looking for a crylasm.”

“It’s funny, it’s almost like you know what you’re talking about.”  Ezarel laughed. “Almost!”

“You’re right,” Elizabeth admitted with an enormous sigh.  “I actually have no idea that a crylasm is basically a sheep with blue wings.”

“Yeah, except sheep don’t bite.”

“Oh.”  Elizabeth blinked, momentarily at a loss.  “Is this going to be more dangerous than I realized?”

“Oh, relax, I’m just poking fun!”  He strolled away, laughing to himself, before Elizabeth had the chance to pull a dad joke on him.  Huffing with annoyance, she headed deeper into the marketplace to find Chloe.

During this time, Chloe had located a stall run by a faery who resembled an anthropomorphic Siamese cat.  As Elizabeth approached, she turned away from it, holding what was presumably an Eskimo Pie. “Hi,” she greeted as her sister approached.  “How’d things go with Mr. Darcy?”

“What?”  Elizabeth was still a bit off-balance from her previous conversation.  “You mean Ezarel?”

“Who else?”  Chloe’s smirk was very reminiscent of the elf.

“What makes him Mr. Darcy?”

Chloe pointed at her sister.  “Your name is Elizabeth. If that tongue-flop when you first met him is anything to go by, you have a crush on him.  And yet, the two of you act like you hate each other.” She paused. “Well, actually, he might genuinely dislike you, but that helps my point.”

“I tongue-flop all the time!” Elizabeth protested.  “I certainly don’t have a crush on that idiot!”

Chloe snorted.  “Keep telling yourself that.  By the way, did you think to ask him where the burrow was?”

Elizabeth shook her head.  “He just walked up, taunted me a bit, and sauntered away as though he wasn’t the most annoying person in existence.”

“Well, let’s try the Hall of the Guards,” Chloe suggested.  “Nevra seems to be there all the time. We’ve seen him there, what, three times already?”

“I guess he might know.”  Elizabeth wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea, but since she had failed twice to get any information, she figured she had better go along with Chloe’s suggestion.

The two made their way back to the Hall of the Guards, where sure enough, they found Nevra.  He waved to them, before noticing the food Chloe held. “What are you doing with that Eskimo Pie in your hands?  You do know it’s not edible, right?”

Chloe giggled.  “Of course we know that.  This isn’t for us — it’s for Mery’s crylasm.”

“He lost it again?”  Nevra didn’t look particularly surprised, just exasperated.

“Again?” Elizabeth exclaimed, slightly aghast.

“Again,” Nevra confirmed grimly.  “Do you girls at least know where to look?”

“Well… no.”  Chloe rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.  “We came to ask you where the burrow was.”

“Hmm… it’s just outside of HQ.”  Nevra looked like a thought suddenly struck him.  “It’s very dangerous out there, though… lots of wild creatures.”

“Heck.”  Elizabeth fidgeted, flicking her hand rapidly back and forth to make a pair of rings she wore on her third and fourth fingers rattle.  “That complicates things. But then again, if it’s just right outside of HQ, shouldn’t we be fine?”

A slow smirk spread across Nevra’s expression as he observed the girls.  “Maybe. But don’t worry, I won’t let two young girls walk out there alone… it would give them another chance to escape.”

“We weren’t trying to—”  Chloe sighed, giving up. “Thank you so much.”

“However…”  The vampire glanced at Elizabeth quickly, before placing a hand on Chloe’s shoulder and placing his lips next to her ear to whisper.  “Who says I’m not more dangerous than the creatures?”

Chloe said nothing, though her eyes widened a fraction and she quickly glanced to see her sister’s reaction.  Fortunately, Elizabeth hadn’t heard, though she was glaring suspiciously at Nevra.

“I’m sure you wouldn’t dare do anything,” Chloe finally answered, trying to keep her tone light and playful.  She immediately regretted her choice of words and hoped Elizabeth wouldn’t murder Nevra later. “Still, even though I’m sure we could stand around flirting all day, we need to go to the burrow, right?”

Nevra’s hand slid from Chloe’s shoulder to her back as if to nudge her along.  “Of course. Besides, it’s rude to keep a lovely lady such as yourself waiting.”

“Yes, so drop the flirting and let’s go,” Elizabeth agreed sourly, pushing between them.

Chloe rolled her eyes at her sister, but otherwise voiced no issues as Nevra began to lead them out.  “I hope we get a break soon,” Chloe murmured, the smallest limp starting to become noticeable in her gait.

Elizabeth gave her a sympathetic look but said nothing, and the group lapsed into silence as they made their way through the Refuge and beyond the outer gate.  Nevra led the twins to a large but somewhat hidden burrow not far from the gate.

“So do we just… put down the Eskimo Pie at the entrance?” Chloe asked.

“If you’d like.”  Nevra seemed to be watching her with curiosity.  Slowly, she leaned down and placed the treat at the wide, gaping hole’s mouth.  They waited for a few minutes, but it soon became clear that nothing was going to happen.

“Welp.”  Elizabeth stared ruefully at the empty mouth of the burrow.  “So, uh… what now?”

“Now I take you girls back to HQ before a ‘wild creature’ is tempted.”  Nevra winked at Chloe, who couldn’t help but blush. She didn’t like him in that way, but his antics were, admittedly, quite endearing to her.  “If there are no objections?”

“What are we supposed to do about the crylasm?” Elizabeth protested.

Nevra hummed, putting his hands in his pockets.  “I don’t know. Ask Kero. Or you could always buy a crylasm egg from Purreru.”

“We could have just bought one?!”  Chloe looked outraged.

Nevra actually had the decency to look a little sheepish.  “I thought… nevermind. Here, for a lovely lady such as yourself, I’ll cover the cost.”  He gripped Chloe’s hand, and her skin tingled at the points of contact as a strange but oddly familiar energy transferred between them.

Nevra guided them back to HQ, bidding them farewell at the marketplace before slipping away.  Chloe tentatively approached Purreru again, coming away a minute or so later clutching a light blue egg with its bottom half wrapped in wool.

“So… I guess we just take this to Mery.”  She recalled the child’s shrill voice, and immediately held out the egg to her older sister.  “Or you can.”

Elizabeth began to protest, then stopped.  “Yeah, okay.”

Chloe hummed contemplatively, looking around.  “Back to the Refuge, then?”

Elizabeth started in that direction, but at that moment, Kero came running up to them.  “Girls, come quickly! Your companions are hatching!”

Chloe gasped.  “Show us where!”

Kero took off back in the direction of HQ, and the girls ran after him.  He led them to the library, where their incubators sat side-by-side on a small table.  Elizabeth’s Becola egg was webbed with cracks, and Chloe’s Sabali egg was beginning to crack as well.  Both were rocking back and forth. Elizabeth let out a little squeal and tried to approach, but Kero held her back.  “Stay back until it hatches all the way.” She nodded, chagrined, and contented herself with watching intently.

Chloe was watching her egg like a hawk as well, and within a few minutes, the two baby companions were laying among the egg shards.  Chloe immediately rushed forward to scoop her Sabali into her arms. It was a white, horse-like creature with a tiny golden horn and a little leaf sticking out of its mouth, and it cuddled up to Chloe affectionately.

Elizabeth approached her Becola, a roundish black creature with feathery ears, a long tail with similar feathers, and a beak, more gently, holding out a hand for it to sniff.  It opted against that, jumping onto her arm and chirping sassily at her. Some instinct told her her Becola was male, and she looked at him critically. “You need a name, but I want it to be perfect.”  She glanced at Kero. “Is it critical to name my companion right away?”

Kero shook his head.  “You should name him quickly, but it’s all right if you need time to decide.

Chloe hummed, looking down at the cute little Sabali.  “I don’t want to give him a name I’ll end up not liking.  I’ll decide by sundown.”

“That should be fine,” Kero assured her.  “You two should get back to your mission.”

“Right, the crylasm!”  Elizabeth paused. “What should I do with my Becola?”

“You can leave him to his own devices, send him exploring, or have him follow you,” said Kero.  “He should come when you call and do what you tell him. Companions are very intelligent.”

“Huh.”  Chloe petted her Sabali’s head, receiving a chirp in return.  “Okay, I want you to go and explore the gardens, okay?”

Her Sabali gave another affirmative chirp before running off.  Elizabeth decided to try it, giving her Becola a similar instruction.  As he scampered away, Elizabeth turned to her sister. “Okay, we should really go find Mery.”

Chloe nodded.  “Now to the Refuge for real.” The two sisters made their way back to the village, and after a while of searching, Mery ran up to them.  Chloe instinctively flinched, moving as though to cover her ears, before remembering it was unlikely the child would cry this time.

“We found you a crylasm,” said Elizabeth with a huge, not entirely genuine smile, and she held out the egg to him.

“What?  That’s not my friend!” Mery protested.

Chloe forced herself to hold her tongue.  “Yes, it is,” she assured. “If you hatch the egg, you’ll find that your friend is inside, just the same as always.”  Maybe she was fibbing a little bit, but she really didn’t want to deal with the child more than necessary. She never was good with kids.

“Just make sure you take care of it this time, okay?”  Elizabeth made sure Mery was paying attention before continuing.  She handed him the Eskimo Pie. “Once it hatches, feed it this, rather than people food.  Faeries and companions eat different things.”

Mery nodded earnestly, taking the Eskimo Pie.  “Okay!” As the sisters turned to leave, he called out, “Wait!”

Elizabeth turned.  “What is it?” She tried to keep the exasperation out of her tone.  Chloe silently pleaded the boy didn’t have another request for them.

“I have a present for you!”  He reached into a pocket and pulled out a small blue shard of translucent stone that seemed somehow familiar to the girls.

“Wait, is that a piece of the Grand Crystal?” Elizabeth exclaimed.

Chloe leaned forwards to pluck the shard from Mery’s hand, staring at the softly pulsating crystal with undisguised awe.  “I think it is. But how…?”

“I found it!” Mery declared proudly.

“But… why are you giving it to us?”  Chloe couldn’t understand.

“If you give it to the Guard leaders, they won’t think you’re such weirdos!”  He gave them a huge grin.

Elizabeth gritted her teeth.  “Thanks, that’s… really thoughtful.”  She turned back toward HQ. “Come on, Chloe, we should head to the Crystal Room.  Goodbye, Mery.” If her words sounded forced and unnatural, she couldn’t bring herself to care.

Chloe hurried away without saying goodbye, her eyes focused on the ground.  Lost in her thoughts as she was, she nearly ran into someone, stopped only by a gentle hand on her arm.

“You really ought to be more careful.”  She blinked, looking up at the grinning face of Nevra.  “While I wouldn’t mind if you fell into my arms, others may not be so kind.”

She didn’t shove him away, but she did take a step back.  “Your kindness is most welcomed, my lord,” she responded without thinking, blinking as her words sank in.

Shock crossed Nevra’s expression for the briefest of seconds before it vanished.  “Anything for such a well-mannered and most pretty young woman.” He took her hand and bowed over it in a most extravagant gesture.

“You flatter me with your compliments; I assure you there are girls far more deserving than I.”  Chloe really had no idea how she’d gotten into this banter, but she had to admit to herself; it was  _ fun. _

“On the contrary, I find that there are few maidens more beautiful than--”

“Mery gave us a piece of the Grand Crystal,” Elizabeth interrupted somewhat more loudly than necessary, interrupting their flirting.

“What?”  Nevra’s shock was less temporary this time as he turned to Elizabeth.  In response, Chloe simply held out the glowing blue shard. Nevra was silent for several long moments.  “Miiko needs to see this. Come with me.”

The two girls followed the vampire wordlessly, crossing the grounds for what felt like the thousandth time that day.  On the way, they passed Ezarel and Valkyon, and Nevra beckoned to them to follow. His expression was serious enough that neither Guard leader questioned him, and they soon reached the Crystal Room.

Fortunately, Miiko and Jamon were there.  “Oh, hello, um, all of you,” said Miiko, her eyes widening slightly at the sight of them.  “What is this about?”

In response, Chloe opened her hand, revealing the Crystal shard on her palm.  “This.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's been four months since we last updated... yeah we have no excuse except procrastination. Two new episodes and a spinoff came out in that time.

Miiko stiffened with shock.  “Where did you find this?” she demanded.

“We didn’t,” said Elizabeth, then hesitated.  “Wait, that made more sense in my head. Mery found it and gave it to us.”

“He said that if we gave it to you, you might think we were less… weird,” Chloe added, making a face as she remembered Mery’s assessment of their appearances.

“I see.”  Miiko frowned.  “In that case, where did Mery find it?”

Elizabeth opened her mouth and put up a hand in an exaggerated gesture.  “That, I don’t know. He didn’t say.”

Ezarel cut in.  “I’ve been saying it from the beginning; these two are useless!”

Miiko turned on him.  “Oh, chill, Ezarel! There is no need to throw arcane dust on the fire!”

Chloe couldn’t hold back a little smile at the saying.  She found it to be quite cute. “Sorry. Just… we didn’t think to ask.”

Miiko hummed.  “Girls, can you leave so we can discuss this?”

Elizabeth tilted her head.  “I mean, sure, but where would we go?”

Miiko considered for a moment.  “Actually, I’m not sure. Boys, Jamon, come with me.  Elizabeth, Chloe, do you mind waiting here?”

Elizabeth nodded, then shook her head, a slightly confused expression crossing her face.  “Ye—no. I don’t mind.”

Chloe couldn’t help but laugh.  “I don’t mind either.”

Miiko, Jamon, and the Guard leaders filed out of the Crystal Room, leaving Elizabeth and Chloe on their own.  “Weird that they’d trust us not to mess anything up after arresting us for just being here yesterday,” Elizabeth commented.

“I mean, yesterday we didn’t bring back a piece of the Crystal,” Chloe pointed out.  “Still, if it bothers you, I’m sure Miiko won’t be toooo mad if we wait in the main hall?  Besides, there’s stairs there I can sit down on…”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, but maybe we should give them some time to get wherever they’re going so it doesn’t look like they’re following us.”  Elizabeth paused. “Like we’re following them. I’m good at words.”

“Most elegant.  Eloquent,” Chloe agreed.  “Elegant is not the right word there.”

“Nope.”  Elizabeth grinned widely in amusement at their shared inability to speak.

“At least we’ve avoided total tongue failures in front of Miiko and the Guard leaders so far.  I think.” Chloe furrowed her eyebrows. “Welp, now I can’t remember. Yay my awful short term memory.”

They waited for a few more minutes, then wandered out to the main hall and plopped down on the stairs.  “I wonder where they ended up,” Elizabeth mused idly.

A shout from the pantry attracted their attention.  “They are not staying here!”

“I think we just found out,” Chloe responded after an awkward moment, recognizing Ezarel’s voice.

Someone replied, loudly but not nearly as comprehensively, and Elizabeth stood.  “I think I’m going to wander in the general direction of the pantry, though certainly not with the intention of hearing anything from inside.”  

“Oh yes, I think I’ll join you on that endeavour,” Chloe hummed, getting to her feet as well.  They casually strolled in the direction of the pantry, slowing as they drew near and the shouting resolved itself into words.

“Having a pair of humans will bring nothing but trouble on all of us!”  It was Ezarel again, making his feelings about the twins abundantly clear.  Elizabeth clenched her hands into fists and gritted her teeth, resisting the urge to shout back.

The response came in Valkyon’s deep, even tone.  “Miiko, you know I respect you, but I have serious doubts about their ability to handle tasks within the Guard.  We all saw how Chloe fainted, after all.”

Chloe gritted her teeth but said nothing.  Elizabeth, for her part, looked like smoke might start pouring out of her ears at any moment.  Before she could do anything she would later regret, however, Nevra spoke up. “I mean, they could always stay in the pantry for me.”

“That is really all you think about, Nevra!” Miiko scolded.  “In any case, they are now in guards and there is to be no more discussion about it.”  Her tone warned against argument.

Ezarel seemed to completely miss the warning.  “They are weak, useless, and they think they know everything about our world,” he scoffed.

“That’s enough out of you!”  The girls heard a crackle of flame from within the pantry, most likely from Miiko’s staff.

“Why shouldn’t I speak out against keeping them here?” Ezarel retorted, undeterred.  “Don’t come crying to me when you get sick of them!”

“That’s it,” Elizabeth muttered, just loud enough for her sister to hear.  Chloe glanced over at her, wide-eyed.

As Elizabeth raged toward the pantry, a gentle hand landed on her shoulder, making her yelp.  “It’s not very polite to eavesdrop through open doors,” said Leiftan.

Chloe’s entire face flushed red and she squeaked.  “L-L-Leiftan!”

Leiftan smiled at her.  “Then again, I can understand the urge, given the noise they are making.”

Chloe seemed to want to say something, but her mouth kept flopping like a fish where there should have been words.  Elizabeth stepped in. “We weren’t eavesdropping!”

“Right.”  Leiftan seemed entirely unconvinced.  “Well, nevertheless, you don’t need to worry.  While Ezarel can be… extreme, he’s not the only decision maker here.”  He let go of Elizabeth’s shoulder, placing his hands on his hips.

“I — bluh — we—”  Chloe shut her mouth.

“Chloe, are you all right?”  Leiftan’s tone was full of concern.  He reached out a hand toward her, then seemed to think better of it and pulled it back.

“Never better, ever,” Chloe squeaked out.

At that moment, the Guard leaders began filing out of the pantry.  Ezarel glared at the twins. “Were you spying on us again?”

“It would have been difficult not to overhear your top secret shouting match,” Elizabeth shot back.

Miiko sighed, looking from Leiftan to the girls.  “Well, since you clearly overheard everything, I’ll say it again.  These girls are your responsibility. You insisted they stay, so stand by your decision.”

Nevra shifted uncomfortably.  “We’ll stand by our decision, but that doesn’t mean we want them to stay forever.”

“I mean, neither do I,” Elizabeth put in.  “I love the idea of magic, and this place seems amazing, but I do want to go home eventually…”

“I want to stay.”  Chloe’s words drew everyone’s attention.  Her face was still red, but she’d regained control of her mouth.  “I… It’s better than at home.”

“What?”  Elizabeth’s eyes widened.  “You’d just abandon everyone back home?”

She gave a one-shoulder shrug.  “The only person who’d really miss me is here with me.”

“What about Mom?” Elizabeth challenged.  “She always said we were everything to her.”

“Forgive me if one person isn’t enough to make me want to leave literally the world of my dreams…”  She didn’t look her sister in the eyes.

“Two people,” Elizabeth corrected stubbornly.  “I have a lot more people who are more important to me than magic, so I’ll be going back eventually.”

“We can’t go back!” Chloe shouted.  “Were you not listening?”

“Ahem.”  The sisters turned to face Miiko.  “As much as we’d all love to listen to you two bickering all day, we do still need to deal with that piece of the Crystal.”

“Right, that’s a thing.”  Eager to move on from the argument, Elizabeth snagged the Crystal shard out of Chloe’s hand and held it out to Miiko.

The kitsune led the group back to the Crystal Room and approached the Grand Crystal.  As she held out the smaller fragment, both parts began to glow brilliantly and the shard floated into the air before fusing with the larger crystal as though they had never been separated.

“Whoa.”  The word slipped out of Elizabeth’s mouth before she could restrain it, and she put a hand over her mouth, and Chloe’s reaction was not much different.

Miiko seemed about to say something, but at that moment, there was a glimmer of multicolored light, and an ethereally beautiful woman appeared.  She had scales on her arms and legs, a long, sinuous tail, feathers instead of hair that flowed down her back and branched into numerous pairs of wings, and iridescent horns on her head.  She wore nothing but a gauzy scarf that floated around her body, somehow not revealing any of her more sensitive anatomy, if indeed she possessed any.

There was a chorus of gasps as the woman began drifting toward them.  She whispered a few words in a language the twins could not understand, before raising her hand, slowly moving to point first at Chloe, then at Elizabeth.

She disappeared as though she had never been there, leaving Miiko, Jamon, Leiftan and the Guard leaders looking stunned.  Valkyon simply raised his eyebrows, while Ezarel seemed at a loss for words for once in his life. His face was incredulous, and he sputtered, attempting words but sounding more like a flustered Elizabeth than his usual poised self.  “I — you — she — what?”

“Why would the Oracle appear now?” Leiftan asked the room in general.  Of the onlookers, he seemed by far the calmest, though his eyes gleamed with — something.  Simple curiosity, or something more?

Nevra’s eye seemed wide enough to be in danger of bursting out of his face.  “She hasn’t appeared in years.”

“This… changes things.”  Miiko was obviously trying to keep her voice steady.  “The Oracle doesn’t appear except in the most dire of situations, and it has been years since anyone has seen her… until now.”  She turned to fix an unwavering gaze on the twins. “So I have to wonder, what exactly is so special about you?”

“There is nothing special about them!” Ezarel interjected, sounding outraged.

“The Oracle wouldn’t appear for no reason,” Leiftan reminded him gently.

“Um… what’s going on?” Chloe asked hesitantly.

“Who was that?” Elizabeth added.

“That was the physical, living embodiment of the Grand Crystal,” Miiko explained.  “We call her the Oracle. She only appears during very important events, as I mentioned.”

“Like the birth of a royal child, a change in the maana… or the arrival of a pair of humans, I guess,” Nevra added.

Ezarel scowled, glaring at Nevra but carefully avoiding meeting Miiko’s eyes.  “Why are we wasting our time trying to explain this to them? It’s not a human thing.”

Valkyon spoke for the first time since the argument in the pantry.  “That’s the point. Maybe they aren’t just humans?”

“And what else could they be?”  Ezarel’s lofty tone implied infinite skepticism.

“It’s not unheard of for Earthlings to have faery blood,” said Miiko, causing the sisters to exchange an excited glance.

Ezarel forced a laugh.  “Haha! That’s a good one, Miiko.”

Miiko glowered.  “I’m serious,” she replied curtly.  “They will have to take the test.”

“And who do you expect to make it?”  Ezarel crossed his arms.

Miiko simply raised an eyebrow.  “You, of course. Don’t think you’re getting out of this.”

“Wait, back up.”  Elizabeth held out her hands in front of her in a stopping gesture.  “Which test is this?”

“The faelien test,” Miiko explained. “It tests if someone has faery blood.”

“Is it another questionnaire?” Chloe asked, then paused.  “But wait, you said it had to be made…”

“It’s a potion.”  Ezarel sounded almost sulky.  “When prepared correctly, it reveals whether or not a person has fae blood, though in this case, I don’t see the point, as the two of you are clearly entirely human.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that, Ezarel,” said Leiftan mildly, looking at Chloe and Elizabeth appraisingly.

“They’re going to take the faelien test.”  Miiko’s interruption was sharp. “Ezarel, see it done.  The rest of you, get back to whatever you were doing.”

With a variety of murmurings and grumblings, everyone gradually filtered out of the Crystal Room, leaving Chloe and Elizabeth alone to process all that had just happened.  Elizabeth stared at Chloe, wide-eyed with wonder. “Can you believe this? I can’t believe this. I want to believe this, I just — can you believe this?” Her voice fluctuated between excitement and incredulity.

Chloe seemed at a loss for words, unable to respond to her sister.  Just then, she noticed something different about Elizabeth. “Elizabeth, your… eyes...”

Elizabeth put her hands up to her face, rubbing at her eyes with her fingertips before opening them again.  “What about my eyes?”

“Your left eye… it’s blue.”

“What?”  Elizabeth glanced fruitlessly around for a mirror or reflective surface.  “Are you sure? How is that possible?”

“I’m quite sure,” Chloe responded fervently.  “It’s definitely a different colour to your right.”

Elizabeth blinked rapidly.  “I wish I could see for myself.”  She stared at her sister, still trying to process the new information, only to find an even bigger shock.  “Whoa! Your eye! It’s too!”

“What?”  Chloe blinked.

“Gah.  Sorry. But look at your left eye!”  Elizabeth stopped as she realized the idiocy of that, taking a deep breath to gather her thoughts.  “Never mind. Just, your left eye is hazel now.”

“I… huh.”  She blinked again.  “Did our left eyes swap or something?”

“That’s—”  Elizabeth cut herself off.  “I was going to say that’s crazy, but it’s not exactly the craziest thing to happen in the past few days, is it?”

“Not really,” Chloe agreed. “Come on, let’s go to the alchemy lab and see if Ezarel needs any help.”

“Um, okay.”  Elizabeth was clearly not quite ready to move on from the topic, but she didn’t protest, and they headed toward the alchemy lab.

When they arrived, the elf had his back to them, his nose buried in a grimoire.  Chloe glanced at her sister, shrugging in a helpless ‘should we interrupt him’ gesture.  Elizabeth hesitantly cleared her throat. “Um, hi. Do you need any help?”

“Can’t you see I’m busy?” Ezarel complained, barely glancing at them.

Chloe winced.  “Well, in that case, we’ll just go—”

“But if you insist on helping,” Ezarel interrupted, “you can bring me some purified water, a scarlet stone, a lunar fruit and some golden cypress sap.”

“We weren’t insisting,” Chloe mumbled under her breath, but she smiled.  “Alright! We’ll get that for you. Right, Elizabeth?” She turned to look at her sister.

“Wrong,” said Elizabeth sardonically, picking up a piece of paper and pen from one of the alchemy lab’s tables to write down the ingredients they needed.

“Oh, good thinking,” Chloe approved.  “Well, let’s going.” She paused, then added in a whisper, “Unless you wanted to banter with Darcy some more.”

Elizabeth smacked her lightly.  “Yes, let’s going,” she agreed, emphasizing the odd phrasing to tease her sister.

Chloe groaned but scurried out of the alchemy lab.  “What should we try and find first?” She hummed consideringly, before answering her own question.  “What about the purified water, since we know what that is? I bet we could find it at the marketplace.”

“We could try that alchemy shop,” Elizabeth agreed.  “Who knows, they might even have some of the other things we need!”

“If not, we’ll just ask around.  Come on!” Chloe grabbed her sister by the arm, dragging her out towards the market.  The whole incident with the Oracle seemed to have revitalized her, since even though she was out of breath by the time they arrived, she wasn’t in any sort of pain.

It didn’t take them long to reach the alchemy shop, where they were greeted by a grey cat with three white stripes on his forehead, a white patch in his chest, white tail tips (his tail split into two), and a slightly crazed look in his eyes.  “Well, hello there!” he said in a vacantly enthusiastic tone, somehow managing to fix one eye on each of them.

“Oh, uh, hi there,” Chloe greeted, taken aback.  “We’re looking for some purified water and… other stuff…”

Elizabeth consulted the list.  “A scarlet stone, lunar fruit, and golden cypress sap.”

“Can’t help ya with most of that stuff, but I can get you some purified water- for just 42 maana!”

Chloe glanced at her sister, trying to silently inquire who was going to pay.  Misinterpreting the look, Elizabeth gave a nod and stepped forward. “Okay, uh, what do I need to do?”

In response, the cat held out his paw.  “Touch your paw to mine and think about how much maana you’re giving me.  Simple.”

Elizabeth nodded and obliged, thinking about giving the cat forty-two maana.  She winced as she felt the small amount of energy drain from her but didn’t complain.  “Thank you. Now, the water?”

“Of course, of course!”  The cat reached under the counter, pulled out a decent-sized vial of purified water, and handed it to Elizabeth, who accepted it gratefully.

Chloe quickly thanked the cat, exiting the shop and turning to her sister.  “That cat was kinda weird. Still, we got one of the things we needed. Now, where are we going to find that stone, fruit or sap?”

Elizabeth huffed.  “I wish Ezarel had at least given us an idea of what we’re looking for.  I guess we wander until we find something or someone takes pity on us.”

“You’d think these things would be easy to find from how simple their names are,” Chloe sighed.  “I mean, the sap we should probably find in the forest, but the stone and fruit… dunno. Try the pantry?  For the fruit, I mean. Not the stone. I doubt stones are edible, unless it’s made of jelly. But I don’t think a scarlet stone is made of jelly, but that would be delicious.  Maybe-”

Chloe’s rambling was cut off by a flirtatious voice.  “Do I sense a pair of damsels in distress?”

“Nevra!”  Chloe whirled to face her Guard leader.  “I wouldn’t put it that way, but sure. Anyway, Ezarel asked us to find some ingredients for the test.”

“Well, what’s the problem?”  Nevra leaned in and raised his eyebrow.

“We don’t know what any of it is,” Chloe confessed.  “Particularly the lunar fruit. I mean… the others kind of have clues to what they are.”

Nevra smirked.  “It’s a fruit, right?”  Chloe was almost envious of how calmly he was handling the situation.

“Well, yes, but that doesn’t really help us identify it.”  Chloe rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.

“Give me a moment.”  Nevra disappeared into the crowds, returning several minutes later with a silvery-grey star-shaped fruit.  He handed it over to Chloe. “You’re welcome, ladies.”

Elizabeth gave Nevra a long look, tilting her head to one side, trying to decide whether to re-evaluate her stance on him.  “Thanks,” she said eventually in a tone that was neither hostile nor friendly.

“Any time.”  The response was to Elizabeth, but Nevra’s gaze was focused on Chloe.  “See you around.” He winked and disappeared into the crowd once more.

Chloe giggled.  “I like him.”

Elizabeth shrugged.  “Jury’s still out on him for me.”

“He’s nicer than Darcy,” Chloe pointed out.  “He’s done nothing but help us, and have I mentioned I find his flirtations to be charming in their own way?  Heck, I can’t remember… I’m probably repeating myself, sorry.”

“Would you stop calling Ezarel Darcy?” Elizabeth complained, completely ignoring the rest of what Chloe had said.

“Why should I?  It’s perfect.” Chloe grinned.  “Unless it’s bringing you genuine distress.”

Elizabeth had a sudden epiphany.  “It’s just that I think Darcy would be a perfect name for my Becola, and if you keep calling Ezarel Darcy, that would just get confusing.”

Chloe hummed.  “Yeah, I guess that fits.  Do you think Bingley would sleep in my bed?”  She gave no context whatsoever, biting back a grin and hoping her sister wouldn’t realize what she actually meant.

A slow smirk spread across Elizabeth’s features.  “I think Leiftan would _love_ to sleep in your bed, Jane.”

Chloe could barely keep in her laughter, instead giving her sister an innocent, wide-eyed look.  “What are you talking about? I meant my Sabali.” Her lip twitched.

Elizabeth shrugged, still grinning.  “Well, I didn’t! Cute name, though.”

Chloe laughed, turning to walk towards the refuge, obviously very pleased with herself.  Elizabeth followed, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. As they passed through the village and headed for the outer gates, they happened upon Valkyon.

“Valkyon!”  Chloe waved to the Obsidian leader.  “Hey, Valkyon, do you think you could help us?”

“With what?”  While Valkyon didn’t exactly seem impatient, his tone wasn’t the most welcoming.

“Ezarel asked -- well, more like demanded that we find ingredients for him,” Elizabeth explained, her smile faltering slightly.

“What do you need to find?”

In response, Elizabeth handed him the list.  “We have the purified water and lunar fruit already.”

“You should be able to find cypress sap in the forest,” Valkyon recommended, confirming that Chloe’s idea had been correct.

“What about the scarlet stone?” Elizabeth pressed.

“I really wish Ezarel had told us where this stuff was,” Chloe lamented.

Valkyon’s expression hardened.  “Perhaps Ezarel thought you should figure this out on your own.”  He turned and walked away before either sister could come up with a reply.

“...my bad.”  Chloe bit her lip, looking down at the ground and holding back tears.

Elizabeth scowled.  “We can do this. I’m guessing that scarlet stone Ezarel wants is more than just some red stone, so maybe we can find one in HQ?  Or we could head down to the forest to look for that sap.”

“Forge,” Chloe decided.  Then, realizing that seemed out of nowhere, she clarified, “I saw a lot of gems and stones in the forge, so maybe there.”

“It’s worth a try,” Elizabeth agreed after a moment’s consideration.  “Also closer than the forest.”

“And presumably safer.”  Chloe sighed as a thought occurred to her.  “This is going to wreak havoc on my feet.”

Elizabeth let out a resigned sigh.  “As helpful as I’d love to think I am, I wish Ezarel could have just taken care of this himself.”  That said, she turned and led the way back toward HQ once more.

Once they reached the forge, Chloe made her way over to a table scattered with gems and tools.  Opening an ornately decorated box, she found a reddish-purple rock. “Hey, think this could be it?  It’s scarlet, and a stone.”

“I mean, if it’s not, Ezarel only has himself to blame for not giving us enough information,” Elizabeth pointed out with a small, vicious smile.

Chloe pocketed the stone.  “To the forest to look for that sap then.”  She sighed. “Any chance you’ll carry me?”

Elizabeth put a hand on her chin, stroking an imaginary beard.  “I mean, I could, but I don’t know if we’d get very far.”

Chloe groaned, dramatically dropping to the floor.  “Woe is me,” she lamented. “I have fallen to the greatest, most terrible foe possible: feet!”

“Well, get up, Woe.”  Elizabeth held out a hand to help her sister up.  “I’m sure you can manage a few more fantastical feats.”

Chloe offered her best kicked puppy eyes.  “But if the sap monster be vicious, it could--”  She stopped herself. “Why did I start talking like a pirate for no apparent reason?”

Elizabeth racked her brain for a good pun, eventually sighing as she drew a blank.  “Sometimes it just be like that I guess.” She adopted a dramatic tone. “Now let us sally forth and slay the vicious sap monster to take the precious sap it protects!”

“Wouldn’t it be more like harvesting it for its blood?” Chloe argued, getting to her feet.

“I guess that depends on how you define sap monster.  Is it made of sap? Does it collect sap? Or maybe it eats sap?”  Elizabeth giggled. “Sap. Sap sap sap. It really doesn't sound like a word at all anymore!”

Chloe laughed.  “We should get going before someone comes and sees us being idiots.”

“Let’s be real, though, when are we not idiots?”

“I’ll give you that,” Chloe conceded, starting to head out of the forge.

Elizabeth followed.  “Sap,” she muttered, giggling at how strange it was starting to sound.  Chloe allowed herself a few more short giggles as well.

As they arrived at the entrance to the forest, Chloe let out a hum of consideration.  “You know, some part of me thought we arrived in the forest, even though we both know we arrived in the Crystal Room.”

“Wait, what?”  Elizabeth wrinkled her brow.  “How does that make sense?”

“It doesn’t,” Chloe responded with a shrug.  “I’ve no idea how I arrived at that conclusion.”  Entering the forest, she stopped. “That’s… a lot of trees,” she commented intelligently.  “Left or right?”

“Hmm, left,” said Elizabeth.  “I have a good feeling about left.”

“Left it is.”  The twins headed that way, pushing through dense undergrowth and between low-hanging branches.  After a while, they came across a very familiar sight.

Elizabeth blinked several times.  “Another mushroom circle!”

“Excellent observational skills,” Chloe quipped teasingly.  “What of it?”

“I guess I just assumed there wouldn’t be any since Ezarel said there was no way for us to go back.  Do you think…?”

Chloe shrugged (she seemed to be doing a lot of that today), leaning up against a tree.  “You can try if you want.”

“I can always come back if it works.”  Bracing herself, Elizabeth hopped into the circle, and then…

Nothing.

“Bleh.”

Chloe opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the arrival of a pair of young women from among the trees.  The first girl, who Chloe recognized as Ykhar, was of middling height, with long strawberry-blonde hair and tall brown rabbit ears, and she wore a dress that faded from green at the top into pink at the hem with a white vest over it.  She seemed full of nervous energy, her hands and ears constantly twitching anxiously. “Okay, but what are we going to tell Miiko? I mean, we can’t just come back empty-handed, but how are we supposed to find anything if neither of us can remember what we’re supposed to find?  Oh, I wish I’d written that list down!”

“Yeah, but it was fun!” the other girl responded with a wide-eyed smile.  She had shimmery lilac hair with cyan highlights and tips, strange finned ears, and what looked like a skintight wetsuit with openings showing patches of shining blue scales on her thighs and shoulders, as well as an alarming amount of cleavage.

“But what about the mission?  What about _Miiko?”_ Ykhar continued to ramble faster than the sisters could follow, her voice rapidly rising in pitch and volume.

Just then, the girl neither of them knew the name of glanced over at the mushroom circle, eyes widening as she spotted Elizabeth.  “Um, Ykhar…”

Ykhar didn’t seem to hear her, continuing to ramble. “She’s going to be so upset and—”

“Ykhar!”

This time, the brownie froze mid-sentence, looking to where the girl was pointing, noticing Elizabeth.  “Oh my gosh, a human!”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to say!”  The scaled girl let out a huff. “Look, she’s standing in the circle; she must have just arrived.”

“We have to take her to Miiko!”

“Wait!”  Elizabeth hastily stepped out of the circle.  “I’ve been here since yesterday!”

Giving no sign that they had heard, the two faeries each grabbed one of Elizabeth’s arms.  “Come on, human, we need to take you to see the leader of the Guard,” said Ykhar urgently.

Chloe quickly stepped into the light.  “Ykhar, relax, she’s my sister,” she said, raising her voice a little.  “She’s already seen Miiko— she’s a member of the Absynthe Guard.”

“Oh.”  The brownie looked sheepish, her ears drooping slightly as she released Elizabeth’s arm.  “I didn’t see you there. Sorry.”

“I’m Alajea!” the other girl introduced herself, also releasing Elizabeth and echoing Ykhar’s apology.

“I’m Elizabeth.”  Elizabeth found that she had no idea what else to say.

“So, um, what were you looking for?” Ykhar asked curiously.

“Sap!”  Elizabeth couldn’t hold back a laugh.  “Well, golden cypress sap, specifically.”

“Oh!”  Ykhar pointed back towards the entrance of the forest.  “You’ll want to head right from the entrance.”

“Thank you!”  Chloe offered the faeries a bright smile.  They returned it, Alajea giving a little wave, before hurrying off, still bickering amongst themselves about what they were going to tell Miiko.  Chloe turned to her sister. “I guess the saying ‘right is always right’ is true even in the faery world.”

Elizabeth made an incoherent grumbling noise in response, beginning to retrace her steps back toward the entrance to the forest to try again.  Chloe couldn’t help but laugh, following after her.

As they headed deeper into the forest, they came across a large tree.  Chloe had to admit she didn’t know her trees, so she pointed at it. “There, that tree with the hollowed center.  Do you think we can get our famous sap there?”

“I hope so.”  Elizabeth approached the tree to investigate.  “Much more charging around searching for the stuff is really going to _sap_ my strength.”

Chloe snorted, but before she could respond, there was a distinct _crack_ from one of the bushes.  She whipped around to stare in the direction the sound had come from, her eyes widening.  She flicked her gaze over to her sister for a moment, trying to ask whether she should go and look without saying a word.

Elizabeth shook her head almost imperceptibly.  “Who’s there?” she called in that direction, trying to sound more sure of herself than she felt.

The bush rustled again, and a familiar but not at all welcome figure emerged.  He pressed a finger to where his lips would be under the disturbing red and black mask, then pointed to the hollow Chloe had mentioned.  Before either sister could react, their erstwhile rescuer ducked back into the undergrowth, seeming to vanish before their eyes.

Chloe swallowed thickly, moving to stand by her sister at the tree.  Without a word, she reached inside, feeling around until her fingers brushed up against something small and hard with irregular edges.  Gripping the mystery object, she pulled it out to examine it, freezing as soon as she realized what it was. “What…?”

Elizabeth leaned in, trying to see what Chloe was holding.  “What did you find?”

Wordlessly, Chloe held out the Crystal shard for her sister to see.  Elizabeth stared at it, spending several seconds opening and closing her mouth without making any sound.  After maybe a minute, she found her voice. “That. That is not sap.”

“No, it’s not,” Chloe agreed faintly.  She glanced back at where the masked figure had disappeared, fingers curling around the tiny glimmering crystal.  “I…” She shook her head. “It’s like he gave this to us, or wanted us to find it, or…” She trailed off.

“That’s… mildly disturbing.”  Elizabeth continued to stare at the shining shard, transfixed not so much by the crystal itself as by how they had found it.  “What do we tell the Guard?”

Chloe bit her lip.  “How about we give it to them after the faelien test?  I imagine that would be the best time.”

Elizabeth nodded slowly.  “Yeah… yeah, that sounds good.”  She tore her gaze away from the crystal as Chloe pocketed it.  “Anyway, sap!”

Chloe grimaced, realizing they hadn’t brought anything to carry the sap in.  “Um, you get it. I can’t stand its… _stickiness_ over my hands.”

“That’s assuming we can find any.”  Elizabeth found herself quietly hoping they wouldn’t, as she didn’t particularly fancy the idea of stickiness all over her hands either.  Once again, they began to backtrack toward the entrance of the forest, but before they had gotten that far, Elizabeth stopped. “Wait, do you think…?”  She pointed to a stand of small trees, saplings really, that were practically coated with sticky golden stuff. “Any idea whether those are cypress?”

Chloe looked up at the sky, as though some deity — the Oracle in this world, she supposed — would answer her sister’s question.  “I dropped biology because of my anxiety.”

Elizabeth searched her pockets in vain for something to collect the sap with.  “If this isn’t the sap we need, I am going to shove it down Ezarel’s throat,” she declared cheerfully, coating her hands in the sticky golden substance.

Chloe searched in vain for a good innuendo.  “As long as you’re not shoving it down my throat.”

“I mean, you are partially responsible for me having to coat my hands in the stuff…”  Elizabeth waggled her eyebrows, holding her sticky hands out threateningly toward Chloe.

Chloe backed away several steps.  “Yes, because I can’t stand the texture of it!”

Elizabeth decided not to press the issue, instead returning to an earlier joke.  “Maybe I’m the real sap monster!”

Chloe let out a horrified gasp.  “Oh no! My beloved sister, all along a creature of the… sap.”  She paused. “Huh. That was funnier in my head.”

“Maybe it’s not meant to be funny,” Elizabeth suggested.  “More like heart-rending… sappy, even.”

Chloe rolled her eyes good-naturedly.  “You know who you should use a sap pun on?”

“Everyone?”

“No, your boyfriend — oh, I mean Darcy — oh, sorry, _Ezarel.”_ Chloe smirked.

Elizabeth made an attempt at scowling that was disastrously thwarted by her mirthful smile’s refusal to go away.  “I haven’t had a boyfriend in over a year, and I don’t think my Becola would understand puns. As for Ezarel, I definitely don’t want to get too sappy with _him._ ”

“Are you sure?  Why, if you wanted to, I’m sure you could be sappier with him than I am with—” Chloe shut her mouth.

Unfortunately for Chloe, Elizabeth caught what she had almost said.  “With Leiftan?”

“With… my ex.”  Chloe refused to meet her sister’s eyes.  “I mean, the bar’s so low there it’s at the core of the earth.”

Elizabeth shut her mouth with a snap, her smile finally fading.  “Oh.” They continued back toward HQ in silence, their mirth abandoned.

When they finally made it back to the alchemy lab, Ezarel was waiting for them, an obnoxious smirk on his face as usual.  “What took you so long?” His expression changed as he was met with solemn silence.

Instead of responding, Elizabeth held out her hands.  A drop of sap dripped from her left forefinger to the floor of the alchemy lab.  “Sap,” she replied by way of an explanation. Chloe offered the lunar fruit and scarlet stone as well.

“Well, aren’t you a couple of grumpy Gallytrots.”  Ezarel took the fruit and the stone from Chloe, then picked up a knife from a nearby alchemy table and approached Elizabeth.  She let out a yelp and shied away, and his smirk returned. “Oh, didn’t I mention? I need your hands as well.”

“Very funny,” Elizabeth griped.  “Please tell me that’s just to get the sap off my hands.”

Chloe mumbled something unintelligible, seeming quite distant.  Ezarel ignored her. “They’re an integral part of the potion.”

Elizabeth gave a lopsided smile.  “You really think I’m some dumb sap who’s going to fall for that?”

At that, Chloe actually snorted, a bit of light returning to her eyes.  “What if a sap monster’s hands really _are_ integral, Elizabeth?  Then you’d be in quite the sticky situation.”

“Whoa, let’s not get too stuck on this idea!” Elizabeth protested.  “Although I’ll admit, I guess they might come in handy…”

Chloe lifted a hand to stifle her laughter, savouring the bemused, slightly outraged expression on Ezarel’s face.  He cleared his throat, trying to take control of the situation. “I’ll just get this sap first, then come back for the hands.”

Elizabeth allowed him to take her right hand in his left and begin carefully scraping the sap away, waiting until he was engrossed in the task to ask, “Which sap?  Me, Chloe, or perhaps yourself?”

By some miracle, Ezarel managed not to cut Elizabeth, though he visibly tensed.  Chloe’s shoulders were shaking with laughter. “You are courting death, sister of mine.”

“Am I?  Hmm.” Elizabeth considered the possibilities as Ezarel continued to scrape the sap off her hand.  “Perhaps I am. I certainly find death more attractive than any of the gentlemen here.” The expression that spread across her face then could only be described as evil.  “Perhaps a romance between myself and death would be too sappy for anyone here to bear.”

“I would say you have peculiar taste in men, but all that means is that I get to get my paws on the cutest, sappiest boys with no competition.”  Chloe smiled in a mischievous way, crossing one arm and resting her chin on the other.

“Trying to engage in a relationship with any of them would certainly sap my energy,” Elizabeth lamented.

“Enough sap puns!”  With one quick, precise stroke, Ezarel cut the remaining sap, which had begun to harden, from Elizabeth’s hands.  “I still need a changeling eye. For the potion, I mean. Just — get out!”

Chloe took a few steps towards the door, then paused, glancing over her shoulder, lip twitching.  “You sure you don’t need changeling sap?” Seeing Ezarel’s expression mutate into pure, unbridled rage, she burst out laughing, running from the lab.

“No, I think he needs a sapling eye!” Elizabeth argued.  “Or maybe just a sense of humor!” She scurried from the lab after her sister, slamming the door shut behind her before dissolving into giggles.  Instead of fading like they usually did, her giggles increased in force and volume, growing into laughs, then guffaws. Before long, it sounded as though a flock of geese had taken up residence outside of the alchemy lab.

“Ezarel’s going to kill you later,” Chloe informed her matter-of-factly through her laughter.  “At least I can kiss up to Nevra to stay out of trouble with him.”

Elizabeth took a deep breath.  “Worth it,” she declared, and her gooselike laughter returned louder than ever.  She couldn’t even bring herself to be as self-conscious about the sound as she usually was.

“Do you think he actually needs a changeling eye, or do you think he just wanted us out of his hair?” Chloe queried.

Elizabeth held up a hand, signalling her sister to wait until she finished laughing.  Finally, gasping for breath, she managed to force down her mirth. “If I had to guess, I’d say he does actually need one, but I don’t know for sure.”

“And we’ve no idea how to get one.  Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best plan we’ve ever had.” She looked up towards the ceiling.  “Uh… walk around for a bit, try to find it, if we end up giving up we just… go back and say we couldn’t find one?”

Elizabeth shrugged.  “Seems like a decent way to not get murdered by my Guard leader.”

Chloe chose to start wandering off instead of replying.  After a while, the sisters bumped into Alajea. “Oh, hi!” the scaled girl greeted them.  “Chloe and Elizabeth, right?”

Chloe blinked.  She couldn’t recall giving Alajea her name.  “How do you know my name?”

“Oh, Ykhar told me!”  Alajea smiled brightly.

“And you’re Alajea, right?” Elizabeth checked, hoping she had gotten the name right.

Alajea nodded.  “So, you two are new around here?  Are you staying?”

“It looks that way.”  Elizabeth stifled a sigh.  “At least some of the people here seem nice.  You’re in the Guard, right? Which Guard are you a part of?”

“Oh, I’m in Absynthe!”  Alajea perked up. “What about you two?”

“Hey, that means we’re in the same Guard!” Elizabeth exclaimed.  “Maybe you can help keep Ezarel from murdering me…” Her voice grew quieter and a bit sheepish, though her grin remained in place.

“I’m in Shadow,” Chloe added.

Alajea tilted her head, looking at Elizabeth inquisitively.  “What did you do?”

Elizabeth couldn’t hold back a small, guilty laugh.  “Apparently Ezarel can make jokes, but he can’t take them.”

Alajea gave a sympathetic wince.  “I know what you mean.” She brightened.  “Still, give it some time, and the Guard will feel like a second family!  You’ll even get used to Ezarel.” She giggled.

“That’s an alarming thought,” Elizabeth said half-jokingly.

“That the Guard will feel like a second family, or that you’ll get used to Ezarel?” Chloe asked.  “Honestly, I already feel more at home here than I ever did on Earth.”

“Forgive me if I can’t say the same.”  Elizabeth’s smile drooped slightly. “I wonder how my quartet is doing… do you think Mom is starting to worry about us yet?”

“Probably.” Chloe fidgeted agitatedly.  “But there’s nothing we can do about that, so let’s not dwell on it too long.”

Alajea chimed in.  “You’re going to have a lot of new duties and responsibilities now, you know.”

“That’ll be something to take my mind off home, at least.”  Searching for a change of subject, she recalled why they had had to leave the lab again.  “Hey, do you by chance know where we could find a sapli--er, a _changeling_ eye?”

Alajea frowned.  “No idea. Why?”

“Ezarel asked us to get one,” Chloe explained.

Alajea gave a long _hmmm_.  “Well, maybe you could try asking Kero!”

“Sounds like a start, at least,” Elizabeth agreed.  “Any idea where he is?”

Alajea shook her head.  “No, not really… but if he’s not in the library, try the pavillion!  I always see him around there.”

“Thanks, Alajea,” Chloe said with a cheerful smile.  “Come on, Elizabeth, let’s go.”

After checking the library and finding it empty except for Kero’s companion, the sisters took Alajea’s advice and headed to the pavillion.  Sure enough, the unicorn was there, trotting in the direction of the marketplace.

“Kero!” Chloe ran up to him.

Kero looked surprised, but he greeted the girls nonetheless. “What are you doing here?”

“Do you know where we could find a changeling eye?” Elizabeth asked, cutting right to the chase.

Kero frowned. “You can find those in the alchemy lab, with the other potion ingredients. Why do you need one?”

“Oh.”  Elizabeth’s expression darkened.  “His High Snootiness Ezarel sent us to find one.”

“He probably didn’t need one,” Chloe reasoned.  “I’d guess he just wanted us out of his hair. Remember?”

Elizabeth couldn't suppress a slight smirk at that.  “I guess we were being a little insufferable.”

Kero cut in.  “Nevertheless, are you worried about the test?”

Elizabeth hummed in consideration.  “Honestly, I’m not sure. It seems impossible for the test to turn up positive, but we’ve seen so many supposedly impossible things already… I don’t know.  I don’t know whether I’m more afraid to find out that I am part faery or that I’m not.”

Chloe hesitated, unsure of how her sister was going to respond to her point of view.  “I won’t say I’m not at least nervous. I’ve wanted to feel special my whole life. This feels like my one chance at that, and… I’m scared that I’ll just be a regular human after all.”

“Chloe…”  Elizabeth laid a hand on her sister’s shoulder, not sure what else to say.  She had known about her desire to be special, to a degree magical, but not how deep those feelings went.

Chloe shook her head, pushing Elizabeth’s hand off her shoulder.  “It’s nothing, really.”

“It’s not nothing,“ Elizabeth insisted, but she let her hand drop to her side.

“Let it go, Elizabeth.”  Chloe raised her voice a little, and Elizabeth shrank back slightly.

Kero coughed awkwardly.  “In any case, rest assured… being human or faery won’t change who you are.”

Chloe nodded, looking down.  “Okay… thanks.” It was clear she didn’t quite believe Kero’s words.

“No problem.”  Some confidence returned to Kero’s tone.  “I just hope that Ezarel will stop bothering you.  If he doesn’t, he will see my true colours!”

Chloe smiled a little at that. “You would really dare to stand up to him?”

“Well… Uh… I…” Kero stuttered, looking embarrassed. Clearly eager to change the subject, he said, “You should go.  The test must be ready!”

“Right.  Thanks for the advice.”  Elizabeth waved to Kero, and the twins headed back toward the alchemy lab.

Ezarel was hard at work when they entered, and it was Elizabeth who took the initiative.  Strolling to the back of the lab, she searched the shelves until she found a bottle labeled _changeling eyes._ She held it out to Ezarel.  “This is what you wanted, right?”

“How clever of you.”  Ezarel’s tone dripped sarcasm.  “Lucky for you, the potion is ready, so I won’t be forced to activate the lab’s defense spell.”

Chloe blinked.  “That literally makes no sense.  But uh, how do we take the potion anyway?  Does it need, like, a drop of blood, or do you blow on something?”

“It’s nothing special,” Ezarel replied.  “Just go find Miiko for me.”

Chloe raised an eyebrow.  “Why?”

A little grin spread across Ezarel’s face.  “I would just prefer her to be here so she can see that you both are really just humans.”

Chloe’s face turned crestfallen at his comment, a strange weight settling onto her chest at the mere idea of being absolutely ordinary.  Elizabeth took a step forward. “ _If_ we’re both just humans, which is seeming less and less likely by the minute.”  Ezarel’s smug certainty made her burn with the desire to prove him wrong.

“It’s hardly the first time silly humans have wandered into Eldarya,” Ezarel scoffed.  “Run along now, or do you need someone to hold your hand?”

“I hope you’re not volunteering.”  Elizabeth turned and flounced out of the lab.

Chloe had recovered from her subdued state during the short walk to the Crystal Room, where they found Miiko and Jamon deep in conversation.  Elizabeth nudged Chloe. “Too bad Leiftan isn’t here, riiiiight?”

“Shut up,” Chloe replied reflexively, before adding, “I mean, not that it matters to me or anything.”

Before Elizabeth had a chance to tease her further, Miiko noticed the girls, turning towards them.  “What do you need?”

“Ezarel is going to have us take the test,” Chloe explained.  “He wants you there to see the results.”

Miiko looked surprised.  “Oh, well…” She passed her staff to Jamon.  “Hang onto this for me.” She swept out of the room, gesturing for Chloe and Elizabeth to follow.

Valkyon and Nevra arrived in the alchemy lab moments after Miiko and the girls did.  As soon as the door closed behind them, Ezarel addressed the room in general. “Well, now that we’re all here, I can finally prove to you all that these girls are completely human.  There is nothing else they can be.”

Chloe shuffled her feet, meek in the face of her biggest fear but finally tiring of the elf’s comments.  “You can’t know that for sure, not yet.”

“Chloe is right,” Miiko agreed, irritation clear in her tone.  “Ezarel, stop.”

Elizabeth stepped in at this point.  “So how exactly does the test work?”

“Give me your hands,” Ezarel explained, sounding grumpy about the whole thing.  “I’m going to apply the mixture to it. If there is a reaction, it means you are a faery. Since you’re a human, though, nothing will happen.”

“Will it hurt?” Chloe asked, anxiety swelling in the pit of her stomach.  Her pain threshold was not particularly high and, to a point, the mere thought of it frightened her.

“No,” Ezarel replied, surprising both sisters with the lack of sarcasm in his response.  “I don’t think so.”

“Let’s see how this goes, then.”  Slightly impatient to get it over with and find out the truth, Elizabeth held out her right hand, and Chloe followed suit.  Ezarel poured droplets of a viscous green liquid onto each of their palms. As he did so, Elizabeth asked, “So how long will it take before we know for sure?”

“It’s instantaneous, right?”  Valkyon glanced at Ezarel for confirmation.

Nevra replied before Ezarel could give the answer.  “Usually, yeah.”

Chloe tried to ignore the twisting knot in her gut that was building up at the lack of reaction.  “So do you do this test often, then?”

“We’ve already welcomed a few humans in the past,” Nevra explained nonchalantly.

“So how did the test react for them?” Elizabeth pressed.

“Nothing extraordinary.”  Ezarel’s smugness was even clearer than usual in the quirk of his mouth and arch of his eyebrows.  “In any case, you would have already seen it if you were anything other than human.”

Elizabeth restrained her instinctive sigh of relief when she noticed that Chloe was biting back tears.  “So we’re definitely just humans?”

“Absolutely,” Ezarel confirmed, before turning to Miiko.  “So, my dear friend… These girls are perfectly human.” Her eyes were hard, her eyebrows disappearing into her bangs as she stared at the girls, clearly not paying attention to the elf, but Ezarel continued.  “As I’ve said from the beginning, there is no trace of faery blood in either of them.”

“Ez…”  Miiko finally interrupted, tilting her head ever so slightly towards the girls, but Ezarel paid no heed.

“Yet again, I’m ri…”

He was cut off by a yelp from Elizabeth.  “Gyaaah! Fire!” And indeed, her hand was on fire, as was Chloe’s, but unlike any normal fire, it blazed vivid green and heatless, burning for several seconds before gradually dying down, leaving no trace of itself or the potion on either twin’s palm.

Chloe was left staring at her palm in shock.  “What just… what…”

Valkyon took a step forward.  “Are you two alright?”

Chloe shook her head to snap herself out of it, before quickly clarifying.  “I… I think so. Elizabeth?”

Elizabeth’s hands shook slightly as she checked them for burns, but she nodded.  “I… I’ll be okay. Someone could have _warned_ me about that.”

“About what?” Valkyon raised his eyebrows.

“I have… issues with fire.”  Elizabeth didn’t particularly want to elaborate on her deep-seated terror of burning to death.

“It’s not like you told us,” Ezarel began to complain, but Miiko held up a hand for him to, to put it bluntly, shut up.  Elizabeth shot her a grateful look.

“Are either of you hurt?” Nevra asked next, thankfully moving on from the topic.

“Nope.”  Chloe shook her head, and Elizabeth echoed her.

“I can’t believe it.”  Ezarel’s smugness seemed to have abandoned him as the truth set in.

Miiko leveled an unimpressed glare at him.  “So? What were you saying? That you were right, that they aren’t faeries…?”  Ezarel gave no response, trying and failing to maintain his trademark smirk.

The reality was slowly starting to set in for the twins, causing Chloe to perk up in excitement.  “So then this means…”

“...it’s true,” Elizabeth finished.  “We’re really part not human. Faery.  Part faery.” The words felt strange in her mouth, and she wondered if she had officially lost her mind.  For her part, Chloe squealed in excitement as if her lifelong dream had come true, and, to be fair, one of them just had.  Elizabeth turned to regard the Guard leaders. “That is what this means, right?”

Valkyon gave a single nod.  “The two of you definitely have faery blood in you.  The green flame indicates the presence of faery blood, and the test is final.”

“This is amazing!”  Chloe was giddy with joy, hugging her sister tightly.

Elizabeth could only nod, returning her sister’s hug in a daze.  “It’s… it’s something all right.” She shook her head slightly to clear it.  “I. I need some air. This is going to take some adjusting to.”

Thankfully, Miiko seemed to understand.  “Feel free to take a walk around the grounds.  Come find us when you are ready to talk about your future here.”

Elizabeth nodded gratefully and left the lab, accompanied by the whirlwind of excited energy that was Chloe, all the pain in her feet forgotten in her rush of euphoria.  “Come on, let’s head outstairs already!” She paused for just a moment as what she said sank in. “Outside. I speak very eloquently, don’t I, sister?”

“Oh yes, very sister.”  A beat. “ELOQUENT. VERY ELOQUENT.  NOT SISTER.” She laughed at herself, the sound coming out a little higher-pitched and more wavering than usual.

Chloe snickered as well.  “No need to announce it to all of HQ.  Come on, let’s go to the gardens.”

The twins made their way out to the pavilion, avoiding anyone they happened upon so they could have some time with just each other.  When they arrived, Elizabeth sat down on the steps. “So uhhh. That happened.”

“It sure did,” Chloe agreed, sitting down beside her.  “This is amazing. I mean, sure, I’ll miss home, but we get to stay here for who knows how long!  It’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of.”

Elizabeth let out a long breath.  “I have to admit, it kind of scares me, having to open my mind to things I’ve always thought, well, impossible.  And I don’t know if I can stand the thought of having to deal with _him._ ”  She didn’t have to elaborate on which blue-haired prick she was talking about.

Chloe waved a dismissive hand.  “Ah, you’ll fall in love with Darcy soon enough.  Just don’t let me hear your lovesick swooning and sighing.”  Which coming from her was pretty hypocritical.

Elizabeth smacked her with the back of her hand.  “Would you stop it? He’s not like the real Mr. Darcy!  Well, real being a relative term here. But like. He’s not a gentleman, he’s an absolute ass who’s unbearable when he’s right and even more awful when he’s wrong, plus he’s a total hypocrite when it comes to witticisms!  I mean, seriously, don’t dish it out if you can’t take it in return!” Without realizing it, her voice had risen into an impassioned rant.

Chloe shrugged. “Potato, po-tah-to.  He kinda reminds me of you.”

Elizabeth shut her mouth with a snap.  “Thanks a lot,” she grumbled. “I’ll be sure to tell him.  I’m sure he’ll be absolutely thrilled about that.”

“You make similar jokes,” Chloe clarified, standing up.  Despite her disability, she was never able to sit still for long.  “I get to be maid of honor at your wedding, right?” She paused, starting to pace around.  “I mean, assuming they have traditional weddings here. Not to buy into expensive heterosexual wedding culture, but I’ve kind of always wanted to wear a white gown and have a fancy cake and all that cute fluffy shit.”

Elizabeth grinned at her.  “Then why pin your dreams on me?  I bet Leiftan will let you have whatever kind of wedding you want, and I call being _your_ maid of honor.”

Chloe sputtered for several seconds before regaining her composure.  “Please, half-bloods don’t marry angels. You, on the other hand, Ezarel’s more on your level.”  She paused, then added cheerfully, “He’s sunk low enough to reach, anyway!”

“Hey!”  Elizabeth stood and nudged Chloe hard with her shoulder.  “Speaking of low, that comment puts you _at least_ on Ezarel’s level.”  She gave a mock evil grin.  “Though I won’t say you’re wrong.”

Chloe hissed in pain, rubbing her shoulder.  “If I’m on Ezarel’s level, that just proves my point about not being able to marry Leiftan.”

Elizabeth winced as she realized she had shoved harder than she intended.  “Sorry. The thing about Leiftan is that, being an _angel_ like you said, he’s certain to come swooping down to lift up his damsel in distress.”  She waggled her eyebrows at Chloe.

Chloe rolled her eyes.  “I’m a damsel but I am not in distress.  Even if I was, I’d be fine. You know the quote, I’m a damsel, I’m in distress, I can handle this and all that.”

Elizabeth pointed finger guns at her and grinned, recognizing it.  “I’d say being on the same level as Ezarel would put anyone in distress.”  She paused. “How did the conversation wander from major changes in our lives due to new information about our ancestry, to _this?_ ”

“Because you brought up Darcy,” Chloe responded nonchalantly, crossing her arms behind her back.  “What’s there to say about us being… mm, what was the word? Did they say?”

“Disasters?” Elizabeth suggested.

“We knew that already,” Chloe quipped, getting increasingly agitated as she couldn’t remember the word.  “I swear it ended with ‘ien.’”

“Faerien doesn’t sound quite right,” Elizabeth muttered thoughtfully.

“FAELIEN!” Chloe shouted suddenly, and Elizabeth jumped, tripping over her own feet.  “That’s the word!”

“Geez, say it a little louder, I don’t think they heard you back on Earth.”  Elizabeth picked herself up and crossed her arms, glaring light-heartedly at Chloe.

A slow, evil smirk spread across Chloe’s face.   _“FAELIEN!”_ she bellowed even louder, before starting to giggle uncontrollably.

This time Elizabeth was ready and managed to not be startled, laughing along with Chloe.  “Yeah, that. I guess there’s not really that much to say, is there? I mean, I could angst about missing Earth, but like.  We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, yeah?”

“Yeah, please don’t angst,” Chloe agreed.  “It’ll just make us sad and I’ll probably start crying because I miss mom and my friends too much and we might be stuck here forever and _oh my gods we’re not gonna see the ending of RWBY are we.”_ Too late, a few fat tears rolled down Chloe’s cheeks.

“Don’t, please don’t!” Elizabeth begged, blinking back tears of her own even as she giggled at Chloe’s last comment.  “If you’re going to cry, I can’t…” She stopped and set her jaw, trying to force herself to be strong. “We’re here now, whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.  And hey, we’re magic! That has to count for something, right?”

Chloe swiped her tears from her eyes.  “I mean, I didn’t spend nineteen years training myself to never cry to break down now.”

“You know that’s not healthy, right?” Elizabeth checked, completely hypocritically, as she had done exactly the same thing.

“Yup!” Chloe replied blithely.

“So uh, does this mean we’ve accepted our fate and all that and we should go talk to Miiko?” Elizabeth checked.

“Yep, let’s head back.”  With no further prompting, Chloe started strolling back to the alchemy lab, followed closely by Elizabeth.

Miiko fixed her gaze on the girls.  “Welcome back. Are you feeling better?”

Chloe nodded.  “We talked about it, and… oh!”  She suddenly remembered the Crystal shard from earlier, plunging her hand into her pocket and pulling it out.  “We found this in a hollow tree.”

Miiko and the boys stared at her, wearing identical expressions of shock.  “WHAT?!” they all exclaimed in alarmed unison.

“How did you know it was there?” Ezarel demanded.

Chloe and Elizabeth exchanged a meaningful glance, trying to figure out whether or not to tell the Guard leaders about the masked man’s sudden reappearance, but before either of them could say anything, a new voice spoke up in a melodious tenor.  “You can tell us about it when you feel ready. We have more important things to do.”

Chloe jumped, letting out an alarmed squawk and hiding behind Elizabeth, who stifled a giggle.  Leiftan strode past the twins to address Miiko. “I just heard that these two girls have faery blood in their veins.”

Miiko frowned.  “Who told you that?”

“News travels fast here,” he replied with a soft, easy smile that caused Chloe to dig her nails into Elizabeth’s sides as she hid her face in her sister’s shoulder, finding herself unable to look at that _adorable_ face any longer without melting.

“Ykhar,” Miiko guessed with a surprisingly indulgent smile.  “She can’t help but spread gossip. But yes, it seems that the Rose sisters aren’t completely human.  I don’t understand it myself; aside from their multicolored eyes, they are both quite common. I wonder what kind of faelien being they are, and how they’ve been finding pieces of the Crystal so easily.”

“They haven’t found that many,” Ezarel deadpanned.

“Two in a few hours,” Miiko countered.  “That’s as much as the entire Guard in a few weeks!”

“Okay, just so we’re clear, a faelien is someone who’s part human, part faery, right?” Elizabeth asked.  “It’s not just some random word Chloe was shouting loud enough for our friends back home to hear?”

Miiko nodded.  “That’s correct.”

“Okay, follow-up question, is there any way to find out what kind of faery ancestry we have?”

“I’m sorry, but no,” Miiko replied, sounding genuinely regretful.  “Without a physical marker or a particular skill, it’s very hard to determine a species.  The fact that you are almost entirely human and have lived your entire lives among humans makes it even harder.”

“We don’t know Valkyon’s species, for example,” Leiftan put in.  Chloe unconsciously clung to Elizabeth tighter as she was reminded of her crush’s presence in the room.

Elizabeth glanced at Valkyon.  “Wait, so you’re a faelien too?”  She hesitated. “Sorry, stupid question, Miiko basically just told us you are.”

Valkyon nodded.  “I’ve lived here my whole life.  I’m more faery than human.”

Miiko held up a hand, drawing attention back to herself and the twins.  “Were you adopted?”

“Um… no.”  Chloe had regained just enough coherency to speak.  “I mean, we don’t know our dad, but I’m pretty sure our mom is our real mom.”

Miiko’s ears perked up with interest.  “Do you know anything about your father?  Anything at all?”

Elizabeth shook her head.  “He’s never really been in the picture, and mom doesn’t talk about him.  Like, ever. It’s always just been us and her.”

Miiko nodded thoughtfully.  “That means your faery blood must come from his side, though that won’t help us as much as I’d like in the search for what you really are.”

“If we find out who they are at all,” Ezarel put in unhelpfully.

Miiko ignored him.  “Anyway, we can talk about this another time, if you’d like.”  She turned to address the Guard leaders and Leiftan. “Of course, with everything that has happened, it’s clear that we cannot let them leave.”

Chloe said nothing, having expected and even anticipated such an outcome.  Elizabeth gritted her teeth and whispered to Chloe, “Okay, that makes sense, but it stings not to have a choice in the matter.”

Chloe blinked owlishly at her sister.  “You already knew we didn’t have a choice.”

“I know,” Elizabeth griped.  “They could at least… I don’t know, pretend?  No, that’s stupid, never mind. I just hate feeling powerless.”

“You and me both, but what’s there to do about it?” Chloe reminded her.

“Nothing, that’s the point!”  Elizabeth forced herself to take a deep breath to calm herself.  “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Don’t bottle up your feelings like you usually do or I’ll actually smack you,” Chloe deadpanned.  “Come on, they’re talking about us.”

Indeed, while the sisters had been bickering, the senior members of the Guard of El had gathered around the table in the middle of the lab.  Elizabeth went red with indignation as she started to listen and heard Ezarel continuing to insist that they were both utterly useless to the Guard.

“I disagree,” Leiftan said, his serene tone belying the intense seriousness in his leaf-green eyes.  “I think only good can come from Chloe and Elizabeth staying with the Guard.” He looked directly at Chloe as he said this.

Chloe ‘eep’ed and slid down behind Elizabeth, who stifled a smirk and pulled Chloe to her feet again.  “Don’t go all mush on me,” she whispered.

“I’m not!” Chloe whispered back, like a liar.

Before Elizabeth could call out her sister’s fib, Miiko interrupted their bickering.  “Since you’re staying here, you will need a room–you don’t mind sharing, do you?”

When neither of them protested, she summoned Jamon and asked him to accompany them to their new room.  Thankfully he didn’t drag them this time, instead grunting, “Follow.” He led them out of the alchemy lab down to the Hall of the Guards.

To Elizabeth’s dismay, Ezarel had somehow gotten there first.  “How are you feeling?” His expression was neutral, unreadable.

Elizabeth turned her head, making clear by her lack of words that she wanted nothing to do with him at the moment.  An awkward silence ensued.

Chloe spoke up to fill the silence.  “Uh… fine, I guess.”

Ezarel raised his eyebrows at her.  “If you want my opinion, we could have gone without… whatever that ‘sap’ business was about.”

Any awkwardness about the situation evaporated as Chloe burst out into peals of laughter.  Elizabeth put a hand over her mouth to muffle her own laughter, but failed to contain a particularly gooselike squawk.  She gave up, letting her hand drop to her side and guffawing alongside her sister.

Ezarel blinked.  “Speechless?” he said, obviously trying to retain control of a conversation that had slipped through his fingers.

Chloe shook her head, still struggling to rein in her laughter.  “No matter what we say, we’ll always…” It was at this moment that her tongue failed her.  “Bleh. Words, yep, I speak those.” This only made Elizabeth laugh harder. Ezarel simply gave the two of them a blank stare before walking away.

“Your room,” Jamon announced, leading the twins to an undecorated pink door.

Elizabeth tugged the door open, interested to see where they’d be staying, and froze.  “This… is a joke, right? And this is the part where you laugh and show us our real room?”

“No joke,” Jamon harrumphed.  “Standard room for new arrivals.”

The ‘standard room’ was the most barren, lifeless room either sister had ever seen.  The concrete walls were mildew-stained and devoid of wallpaper. For storage, a plain wooden crate stood against one wall beneath a rickety-looking wooden shelf held up by chains.  To top it all off, a single bed stood in the corner, a small wooden frame with no blanket, pillow, or mattress.

Elizabeth could practically hear her spine groaning in pain at the sight of the bed–if indeed it could be called one.  “There’s no way we can stay here,” she stated, finding herself once again fighting back tears.

“There’s only one bed,” Chloe noted, figuring it was no use complaining about everything else.

“If you work hard, you tired and you sleep without bed.”  Jamon made his alarming statement sound like the simplest thing in the world.  He turned and left, leaving the sisters staring in dismay at their new room, the most dismal possible welcome to their new world that they could possibly receive.


End file.
